The Government Is Cutting Trades Short To Pump Out Tradies Faster

South Australia reckons it can fix the housing crisis by cutting apprenticeships short. Excavator operators in 18 months, road tunnel work halved, painting officially a trade you can knock out in three years. Alex and Troy pull it apart from the inside, because both of them came out of their own trades still dog shit and scared, and no shorter block was going to change that.

Plus the AI watermark trick that lets you steal photos off real estate agents and event photographers, Troy's exploded knee that turned out to be nothing, and the Tradie Olympics they'd actually pay to watch.

In this episode:
- Troy's knee blows up mid-run and the physio plugs him into a machine that feels like the electric chair
- The AI move to strip watermarks off photos, and when it's smart versus a genuine dog act
- Real estate agents AI-ing the dream backyard when it's really rock and rubbish
- Fast-tracked trades pulled apart, trade by trade, with the real numbers
- Why 43 percent of construction apprentices drop out and what a shorter block actually fixes
- Supertrowel, Japanese master planers, and the trade Olympics the boys invented
- The 1000 metre cable run in a single shift that nobody even noticed
- Kids online, AI deepfakes, and why there'll be no emoji on Alex's kid's face

Timestamps:
(00:17) Back in the promised land, lager talk and Troy's first injury
(02:03) Patellar insertion inflammation and the snake oil physio machines
(05:51) Alex's migraines and the Spec Savers upsell
(10:59) Stingy or Smart, AI watermark removal on stolen photos
(15:37) The Gold Coast marathon photo heist, dog act or fair game
(21:14) Real estate agents AI-ing the backyard to sell you the dream
(23:46) Fast-tracked trades, every trade and the new timeframes
(26:13) Still dog shit as a fourth year, why the time doesn't fix you
(32:43) The horrible diesel fitting trade upgrade at TAFE
(35:25) The real reasons apprentices drop out and whether this fixes any of it
(41:41) Supertrowel and the trade Olympics the boys would run
(50:46) Cable joins, the sparky pride nobody else understands
(56:13) The 1000 metre cable run in one shift
(01:02:04) Kids online, AI deepfakes and no emoji on the kid's face
(01:17:30) The Pulling Threads book mob, and picking a name that isn't sissy

Full episode out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Follow the pod on Instagram: @pullingthreads