🧠The Human Cost of AI Progress — From $150K Engineer to DoorDash Courier

Shawn K., a software engineer with over 20 years of experience and a computer science degree, found himself unemployed after his high-paying $150,000-a-year job was eliminated—replaced by artificial intelligence. This isn’t his first encounter with economic disruption. He survived the 2008 financial collapse and the 2020 pandemic crisis, but the AI boom of 2025 dealt the final blow to his tech career.

After applying for over 800 jobs and receiving nothing but rejection, Shawn made a radical decision: abandon the relentless corporate race and search for personal peace. Today, he lives in a trailer, working as a DoorDash courier to make ends meet. Far from the buzz of the tech industry, he’s chosen a simpler lifestyle to rethink his future.

Shawn believes AI-driven obsolescence is not a distant threat but an imminent reality for most skilled professionals. “It’s coming for basically everyone in due time,” he warns. What started with automation in manufacturing has now reached the intellectual labor force—developers, designers, even data scientists are now competing with increasingly advanced AI systems.

His story raises hard questions. In a world racing toward AI dominance, are human careers becoming expendable? Are we prepared for the social and economic fallout of mass technological unemployment? And most importantly, how do we redefine personal success and meaning when traditional career paths collapse?

As society races to embrace artificial intelligence, it’s time to ask: who’s building the safety net for those left behind? Or are we all just one technological leap away from living in a trailer and delivering fast food?

#AMAGE