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Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

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Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

#61

Post by kiliantics »

freedomben wrote: post #54

If money was no issue, I'd go into carpentry. I find building things out of wood to be immensely satisfying. Everything from the smell of the wood, the differences by wood type, the naturally beautiful look it has, and the usability/UX of the final product tickle me in ways that I haven't experienced before. I've gotten very close with personal software projects, but the physicality of the wood is something software…

Same, specifically boat-building for me because it just draws me in.

But more generally, I would like to commit my time to making the built world more beautiful and sustainable. I despise the obsolescent plastic slop that we all are forced to use, wear, live in, and just see and be around all the time. I find it such a degradation in our society -- the shift in taste and values away from an appreciation of well-made, durable, and well-designed physical objects.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

#62

Post by freedomben »

piva00 wrote: post #58
freedomben wrote: post #54

If money was no issue, I'd go into carpentry. I find building things out of wood to be immensely satisfying. Everything from the smell of the wood, the differences by wood type, the naturally beautiful look it has, and the usability/UX of the final product tickle me in ways that I haven't experienced before. I've gotten very close with personal software projects, but the physicality of the wood is something software…

I was about to answer the same, I'd go to carpentry. I love being in the workshop, I love the pieces I made, I wish I had more time to properly finish some of them with all the details I had envisioned. I've considered it a lot when I went through a big burnout, perhaps I should've just thrown away the 20+ years of career in tech at that moment to start as a journeyman since now it just became much harder to let go o…

Oh man, we've got a lot of similarity there! I even took 2 weeks of PTO at one point when I was feeling massive burnout and spend that time in the shop building a table, chairs, benches, and a couple of attempts at mantles. Chairs were a lot harder than I initially thought (mostly making them comfortable to sit in), but the table and benches were easy enough I could crank out a table in a day and two or three benches the next day.

After that two weeks I even did some market research to see if there was any way to make a remotely comparable living off of it (unfortunately there wasn't, at least until the kids are out of the house and expenses go way down). I also realized that my style was not well aligned with popular styles at the time (this was 2019), and that shipping costs basically meant I could only sell to local area (and even then delivery cost/time would require adding too much margin).

Someday hopefully life will be more compatible with our dream :-)

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

#63

Post by freedomben »

organsnyder wrote: post #55
freedomben wrote: post #54

If money was no issue, I'd go into carpentry. I find building things out of wood to be immensely satisfying. Everything from the smell of the wood, the differences by wood type, the naturally beautiful look it has, and the usability/UX of the final product tickle me in ways that I haven't experienced before. I've gotten very close with personal software projects, but the physicality of the wood is something software…

I've now reframed a garage, built a woodshed, and built a utility shed. I'm planning to build a cabin in the next couple of years. Working with something physically tangible is immensely rewarding.

Indeed! I also found it let me indulge in a secondary passion of mine which is fuel efficiency. For example, when I'm building it myself I can make the walls ludicrously thick and insulated to the point where it stays a relatively moderate temp inside even without climate control. I built a shed to use as a luxury dog house, and it was tight enough that a single small space heater could keep it quite pleasant in the winter (when outside temps would be a low of around 12 deg F and high around 28 deg F).

Material costs were a little ridiculous, but since I'm only building for myself that wasn't a huge issue :-)

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

#64

Post by Retr0id »

There are two ways to answer this, one for what I'd intrinsically enjoy most, and one for what could be an equally lucrative career.

For the former, a repair/handyman. Hanging shelves, assembling ikea furniture, etc.

The latter is harder to answer, but probably something within the legal profession.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

#65

Post by freedomben »

kiliantics wrote: post #61
freedomben wrote: post #54

If money was no issue, I'd go into carpentry. I find building things out of wood to be immensely satisfying. Everything from the smell of the wood, the differences by wood type, the naturally beautiful look it has, and the usability/UX of the final product tickle me in ways that I haven't experienced before. I've gotten very close with personal software projects, but the physicality of the wood is something software…

Same, specifically boat-building for me because it just draws me in. But more generally, I would like to commit my time to making the built world more beautiful and sustainable. I despise the obsolescent plastic slop that we all are forced to use, wear, live in, and just see and be around all the time. I find it such a degradation in our society -- the shift in taste and values away from an appreciation of well-made,…

Neat, I really want to try building a boat! That does seem like it would be really fun. I started on a kayak once but didn't finish it and ended up cannabilizing many of the pieces for another project after a long-time kayaker friend of mine explained some of the big flaws in my design (I have a strong tendency to get creative with designs, for better or worse), and when I realized that my wood selection was highly suboptimal for something that would get heavily exposed to water. I really need to try again.

What type of wood would you recommend? Do you have any favorite designs you would recommend using as a starting point?

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

#66

Post by HardwareLust »

GenerWork wrote: post #16
HardwareLust wrote: post #7

I'd be a cook/chef, which is what I decided on in HS, but I let everyone talk me into tech, which I regret in hindsight.

Interesting, why do you regret it?

For many reasons, some of them I'm sure fall into the "grass is greener" category, but tech just hasn't been very satisfying. Sure, it pays the bills and parts of it I do find interesting, but it just pales compared to how satisfying it feels to cook and serve people good food.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

#67

Post by HardwareLust »

an0malous wrote: post #59
mmh0000 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume: Why programmers like cooking: You peel the carrot, you chop the carrot, you put the carrot in the stew. You don’t suddenly find out that your peeler is several versions behind and they dropped support for carrots in 4.3 https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/agv5ol/why...

and the CEO is now mandating everyone use Slam Chops and is expecting food to take half as long to make thanks to their ingenious idea

You guys are not wrong.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

#68

Post by kiliantics »

freedomben wrote: post #65
kiliantics wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, specifically boat-building for me because it just draws me in. But more generally, I would like to commit my time to making the built world more beautiful and sustainable. I despise the obsolescent plastic slop that we all are forced to use, wear, live in, and just see and be around all the time. I find it such a degradation in our society -- the shift in taste and values away from an appreciation of well-made,…

Neat, I really want to try building a boat! That does seem like it would be really fun. I started on a kayak once but didn't finish it and ended up cannabilizing many of the pieces for another project after a long-time kayaker friend of mine explained some of the big flaws in my design (I have a strong tendency to get creative with designs, for better or worse), and when I realized that my wood selection was highly s…

Check out forum.woodenboat.com to read from a lot of amateurs taking on the project, just be warned that the rabbit hole is alluring and very deep.

It's typically not recommended to self-design, the physics gets technical and there are a lot of free working plans out there including by famous naval architects.

Most people start out with simpler designs using plywood and fiberglass but, due to my aforementioned disdain for a lot of modern approaches, I personally went with a traditional oak frame, cedar plank, copper rivet construction. It is very time consuming but I'm enjoying the journey. I chose a flat-bottomed sail boat design (dory) to make it a little easier on myself.

There are endless variations on the concept of a "wooden vessel that can be propelled through water" idea so it really depends on your interests and tastes. It's a "form follows function" situation too, so you also need to consider your use case -- engine, oar, sail; ocean, river, lake; etc.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

#70

Post by aeonik »

Probably Math and science teacher/professor.

I also could end up being happy in condensed matter physics, astrophysics, robotics, materials science, nano tech, optics, or RF. Some combination of engineering and science.

I love teaching and building things to help people. So there are a bunch of areas that would fit the bill here. I gravitate towards any tech that feels like magic.

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