171–180 of 328 posts
There is a bigger picture than money. I know I could have more wealth. But I'm pretty happy with my life, despite not having maximized my income and investments. I have enough money to pay my bills, enjoy my life, and still have enough extra to have the first-world problem of where to invest it. Would having focused my energies on making even more make me a happier person? Or a better father to my kids? Doubtful.
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Exactly, in fact I think that if you want to stay healthy then working as a construction worker is great: you get physical excercise, fresh air, low stress level. Risk of injury is pretty low, and wages are pretty good. In contrast, being software developer will probably get you heart attack, or problems with your spine, or eyes, or hands or all of the above.
Are you sure this is true? You think the added risk of heart attack from software development is greater than the risk of death in construction? You think the rate of spine, eye, or hand injuries from typing all day is greater than the risk of bodily injury in construction? I find it difficult to find stats for this about software development, but 899 construction workers died on the job in 2014, and construction wor…
I would love someone to try and complain about RSI to someone who's been a construction worker for 20 years. "But you get fresh air and exercise!" Ha! According to this source, 8.2% of construction workers have carpal tunnel: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4476336/ And CTS is generally the least of their worries!
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Exactly, in fact I think that if you want to stay healthy then working as a construction worker is great: you get physical excercise, fresh air, low stress level. Risk of injury is pretty low, and wages are pretty good. In contrast, being software developer will probably get you heart attack, or problems with your spine, or eyes, or hands or all of the above.
> Exactly, in fact I think that if you want to stay healthy then working as a construction worker is great: you get physical excercise, fresh air, low stress level. Risk of injury is pretty low, and wages are pretty good. There's a pretty significant risk of DEATH (guys falling off from scaffolding, someone accidentally driving over you with an excavator etc.), you need to be on your toes a lot of the time or you'll…
Roofers, on the other hand, have extremely high risk of severe injury and death. Those guys are nuts! If I was in charge of OSHA regulations for roofers I'd make sure that no one was allowed to get on to a roof without being attached to some kind of harness that would catch them if they fell. Or surround the home with airbags or something. It seems far too easy to slip, trip, or just plain ol' fall in that job.
I've personally witnessed a young man (roofer) fall from a roof once (on to a big pile of bricks). I found out later that he wound up paralyzed.
Electricians and plumbers are also relatively low risk depending on the work they do. You'd think working with high-voltage electricity would be higher risk than it is but with modern (insulated) tools and training it's quite safe.
I think it's mostly supply and demand, timing and where you live. But those are the factors we rarely talk about. Instead, people complain they are not compensated enough relative to the importance of their work, their intelligence, the hours put in, their title or the length of their education or the risk they take. If people were paid according to the importance of their jobs, I would argue that plumbers, sewage wo…
Yes programmers are well compensated, but they are also in very high demand. One day at a big family union I got three phonecalls from recruiters. My whole family rolled their eyes, while I politely said no to those recruiters with below average offers. I told them that this is usual, I get a few phonecalls from recruiters every week. None of them who work as doctors, teachers, accounting, geophysicist, even an old C…
Just a data point, but it happens to other fields as well. Also, FWIW, she's making about 80k and if she commuted into Seattle, I see jobs posted there for 100-110k quite frequently, for non-managerial positions as a PT. She claims she could make more (at least hourly) as Home Health or a inpatient retirement home type of situation, but likes outpatient too much.
Granted, that's about it, unless she opens her own clinic or goes into management, where as 110k in Seattle gives me some room for salary growth. She also doesn't get other compensation so my point is more about demand of PTs being pretty comparable.
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Exactly, in fact I think that if you want to stay healthy then working as a construction worker is great: you get physical excercise, fresh air, low stress level. Risk of injury is pretty low, and wages are pretty good. In contrast, being software developer will probably get you heart attack, or problems with your spine, or eyes, or hands or all of the above.
> Exactly, in fact I think that if you want to stay healthy then working as a construction worker is great: you get physical excercise, fresh air, low stress level. Risk of injury is pretty low, and wages are pretty good. There's a pretty significant risk of DEATH (guys falling off from scaffolding, someone accidentally driving over you with an excavator etc.), you need to be on your toes a lot of the time or you'll…
Being an asshole has very little to do with crude language.
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Not true. Plumbers work reasonable hours, are paid overtime, don't have to deal with ageism, their skills stay relevant regardless of fashion trends, and their jobs will never be offshored.
> Plumbers work reasonable hours, are paid overtime, Indeed, over here many I talked to refused to do more than 8 hours a day. I didn't understand until... -- ever tried to do a hard physical work several days in a row? How about the entire life? > don't have to deal with ageism But have to deal with knee joints and back pains. Don't underestimate the joy of physical work at an advanced age. > their skills stay relev…
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Most programmers would be able to do usual plumbing stuff like connecting the sink or dishwasher to water pipes with almost no prior learning, just by looking how things are done, maybe asking a few basic questions at the plumbing supplies store, and reading the attached instructions. These things are no rocket-science really. Sure, an experienced plumber would do all of these things much faster and probably better,…
While I agree that the barrier to entry is lower, I feel like you may be overestimating the average programmer’s “hands-on” abilities as well as the simplicity of being a plumber. Sure, most programmers have the problem solving skills to get the job done, but when it comes to actually doing it, things are sometimes different. In my own personal experience, only a small percentage of the programmers that I know (mysel…
I will say the same about welding. After very little reading i was able to make my own tig welder and even modified it later to weld aluminium (which requires AC vs DC normally, and spark starter)
This all information is readily available on internet if you know how to search for it. And that's what today's software developers are good at - finding quickly solution to something unknown.
I think it's mostly supply and demand, timing and where you live. But those are the factors we rarely talk about. Instead, people complain they are not compensated enough relative to the importance of their work, their intelligence, the hours put in, their title or the length of their education or the risk they take. If people were paid according to the importance of their jobs, I would argue that plumbers, sewage wo…
The point of the article is not so much about what should be the right level of compensation for technical people but rather the issue of technical people not bothering to understand the terms of the financial agreements they get into. If they did examine the terms, as you said supply and demand would ensure the terms are fair.
Only if all parties have all the information. The person being hired has now idea how desperate the company is for their skills, how much they're willing to spend, or even if the pay being offered is good for the location/position in a lot of cases.
I think it's mostly supply and demand, timing and where you live. But those are the factors we rarely talk about. Instead, people complain they are not compensated enough relative to the importance of their work, their intelligence, the hours put in, their title or the length of their education or the risk they take. If people were paid according to the importance of their jobs, I would argue that plumbers, sewage wo…
I think there's truth here, but I also think programmers routinely underestimate the quality and compensation of other careers that they think are "below" them. For instance, you did it in this very post. Do you really think that all high school teachers are locked into making $40k for life? Here where I live (a large city, but also a pretty affordable one), teachers start at ~$55k in base salary, get a whole range o…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there's truth here, but I also think programmers routinely underestimate the quality and compensation of other careers that they think are "below" them. For instance, you did it in this very post. Do you really think that all high school teachers are locked into making $40k for life? Here where I live (a large city, but also a pretty affordable one), teachers start at ~$55k in base salary, get a whole range o…
To be fair, no teacher I have ever known has stopped working at 3:20 PM. Grading and planning often go far into the evening.
(source: three parents/step-parents were school teachers)