I think farmers are the original hackers.
before that fire and then wheel - all hacked.
Farmers are forced to continually find new hacks. The labor is so intensive that every little innovation adds up.
Ask HN: Outdoor jobs for geeks?
21–30 of 41 posts
Re: Ask HN: Outdoor jobs for geeks?
#22I am going to try to program while outside.
Re: Ask HN: Outdoor jobs for geeks?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Come to think of it, that is kind of what the hero in Office Space did - except he chose construction work instead of gardening. Still, gardening or construction seems too limited to me. I want to change the world (not only my backyard, although technically it is a part of the world).
How about THIS, then? I've promised myself that if I ever get rich enough, I'll live for years on diving boats. Between dives to the coral reefs, I'd write open source. (My dream also includes hiring a cook from somewhere with really spicy food.) Maybe you could get a telecommute job and do that, without too high a cost. (Boats aren't cheap, but if you stay at coral reefs in Asia, it might be OK.)
In the meantime, you could try IT on a cruise ship.
Re: Ask HN: Outdoor jobs for geeks?
#24Do you mean jobs that don't involve computers and are outside? Many geeky jobs will probably involve some sort of writing utensils, how is it different from computer? I work as a software development freelancer and often work outside with a laptop or just pencil and piece of paper.
I don't have anything against computers, but it seems using them to code usually involves being sedentary. Sometimes I feel kind of imprisoned and think I should be moving about more.
Maybe it is only about balance, so a job that involves lot's of field work (eg for data collection) and some "home" work (data processing) might be good.
Re: Ask HN: Outdoor jobs for geeks?
#25I've long been a fan of going out into the woods with minimal tools (decent belt knife, axe, tarp, blanket, billy can and a box of matches) - you'd be surprised at the hack value you can find out there. Finding the most elegant way to turn a couple of bits of tree into a chair can be far more rewarding than a few hours spent twiddling your .emacs file, I can tell you!
Sadly, it's not immediately apparent how to turn any of this into a paying 'career' - unless your name's Ray Mears, of course, or you're prepared to do it full-time and become a hermit (tempting, sometimes, I know...).
One of my ideal visions for an outdoors-ish job would be making and installing energy producing wind-turbines from scrap, which is something I've been interested in for a good while now. You'd likely never get rich doing it but there's an increasing market for off-grid energy that may soon be enough to support a person.
Re: Ask HN: Outdoor jobs for geeks?
#26I've found that hacking on my house provides a lot of needed physical labor/activity.
I do things like improve the lighting in my garage so I can work on various projects out there. I'm also thinking about taking up gardening.
I too have really felt the urge to get up and do real physical stuff lately. I wonder if it's part of the disillusionment of web 2.0. So much bad news about the economy,etc that I don't feel that working on the "next big website" is really going to pay off.
Re: Ask HN: Outdoor jobs for geeks?
#27I am going to try to program while outside.
I find having a glossy screen on my laptop a bit of pain when doing that.
Re: Ask HN: Outdoor jobs for geeks?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
How about THIS, then? I've promised myself that if I ever get rich enough, I'll live for years on diving boats. Between dives to the coral reefs, I'd write open source. (My dream also includes hiring a cook from somewhere with really spicy food.) Maybe you could get a telecommute job and do that, without too high a cost. (Boats aren't cheap, but if you stay at coral reefs in Asia, it might be OK.)
In the meantime, you could try IT on a cruise ship.
We were discussing living outdoors -- and still get intellectual stimulus. (Preferably without people shooting at you, I assume.)
I don't know the subject, but a cruise ship seems like a more expensive variant of eating all meals at restaurants and going on a weekend trip every week? :-)
Re: Ask HN: Outdoor jobs for geeks?
#29Here is one kind of outdoor geek activity: http://mcsquaredholdings.com/Pictures.htm
Re: Ask HN: Outdoor jobs for geeks?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
before that fire and then wheel - all hacked.
Farmers are forced to continually find new hacks. The labor is so intensive that every little innovation adds up.
That reminds me of a cheese farm I worked on in France. The farmer had slowly hacked together his cheese making equipment from an assortment of other food processing machinery. It ended up saving him something like 10k euro over a commercially produced device.
My favorite hack of his was out of necessity. He started getting shoulder problems from stirring milk for hours every day, so he found an old motor and attached it to the top of his vessel with a large paddle and voila no more shoulder problems.