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Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

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Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#281

Post by aerique »

I would do some climate activism, become a crew member on a Sea Shepherd boat.

That, or help out my political party (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_for_the_Animals) since we have elections early this year. The party's name is unfortunate and its Wikipedia description as well. It is more well-rounded than that and also is the best party in the parliament wrt privacy, civilian rights, etc. (dutch link: https://www.privacybarometer.nl/pagina/45/Actuele_stand_van_...)

And Judo, more Judo.

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#282

Post by gol706 »

I took a bunch of urban studies and GIS classes in college for the hell of it, and might have done it as a major had they not just started offering it my Jr year. I think I would enjoy urban planning or map making.

On the more creative side I'd love to take my Arduino hobby to the next level and build interactive art installations for museums.

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#284

Post by Fnoord »

An appropriate lyric about this would be Nick Drake - One Of These Things First [1].

I'd love to be a farmer, a painter, a philosopher, a writer, a chef, or a combination of that. However since the world is changing so much due to technology, I'm not sure how feasible or enjoyable those jobs would be in the 21st century.

I find it a bit pointless to think too much about it, since its unrealistic, unless you're interested in changing. For good or worse I'm gonna stick to development for the upcoming years. Who knows what's next though.

[1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=nick+drake+-+one+of+these+things+f...

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#285

Post by OJFord »

Tasboo wrote: post #190

HVAC. I love figuring out proper air flow for some reason and have made modifications to the ducts at my house. I could see myself doing that stuff for a living.

For the unacquainted, is the purpose of the modification to improve efficiency, and thus get to temperature faster or reduce costs?

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#286

Post by jimbokun »

whynaut wrote: post #237
ttcbj wrote: post #146

1. Write children's books - because I love reading good books to my children, and if successful, the revenue scales and they have great recurring revenue potential (much better than adult books, I think). 2. Try to bring software development education to underprivileged kids in some way that eventually scales and has real career potential. There is part of me that feels this has potential, because the opportunity for…

For #2 I have thought considerably about this as well. It seems to boil down to two things: 1. Lack of awareness. In many of these environments "software engineering" doesn't really mean anything to anyone, especially if few households own computers in the first place. Growing up in Detroit, my Dad lugged in our first (huge, ancient) PC when I was in the 4th or 5th grade - if I had simply been pointed in the right di…

As for 2, I think that's where the life experience of the parents weighs heavily.

For example, I'm deeply saddened when reading about scam private universities, because they prey upon people who value the ideal of "education" and really want to succeed, but don't have the people around them with enough experience of higher education to distinguish the good schools from the scams.

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#288

Post by fegu »

geff82 wrote: post #232

While I am happy with being in IT... If I could try something completely different, I would do "Iranian Studies" at the university of Marburg, which is nearby as I have some unexplainable love for Iranian culture and language (to the point I found a girl from there and married her). I'd try to work in research at university or as a consultant for businesses that are interested in the country. The other boy dream not…

I would also prefer cargo planes. Less people :)

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#289

Post by mellery451 »

tjic wrote: post #207

Woodworker. From running two small ecommerce companies I think I've learned enough about MVP, shipping, inventory management, etc. From 25 years as a software engineer I've learned about building tools to automate steps. I'd pick some "hard to find / expensive niche (e.g. Greene and Greene, Art Nouveau, etc.), but offer repeatable designs, not do custom work. That would allow for lots of jigs, fixtures, using cheap m…

Luthiery specifically for me - it's a hobby currently and the thing I think about the most when I'm programming. The tooling and jig making aspect of woodworking is also very satisfying to my engineering tendencies.

Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?

#290

Post by ttcbj »

whynaut wrote: post #237
ttcbj wrote: post #146

1. Write children's books - because I love reading good books to my children, and if successful, the revenue scales and they have great recurring revenue potential (much better than adult books, I think). 2. Try to bring software development education to underprivileged kids in some way that eventually scales and has real career potential. There is part of me that feels this has potential, because the opportunity for…

For #2 I have thought considerably about this as well. It seems to boil down to two things: 1. Lack of awareness. In many of these environments "software engineering" doesn't really mean anything to anyone, especially if few households own computers in the first place. Growing up in Detroit, my Dad lugged in our first (huge, ancient) PC when I was in the 4th or 5th grade - if I had simply been pointed in the right di…

I agree with 1. My wife and I just re-watched "Hoop Dreams", which she had never seen. There is a moment where Arthur Agee goes on a recruiting visit to a 2 year college, and is shown offering 4 different generic career ideas to 4 different adults in quick succession. ("Architect", "Business", "Communications", etc). Its like he is guessing at what a career might be, he doesn't have a frame of reference. So, I think the lack of awareness in underprivileged environments may apply to high level career paths in general, not just SD.

Regarding 2, I also agree. I think right now, the school (and possibly home) environments are so sub-optimal that we really have no idea what most underprivileged kids are capable of. But that problem is vastly larger and more intractable than the "could we teach kids pragmatic SD skills" problem.

As much as I want to believe that some kind of pragmatic software development curriculum could offer a scalable career direction for some of these kids, its not clear to me that it would really solve either of these problems. So, I continue to think about it occasionally, but not pursue it.

Also, I once tried calling underprivileged schools in my city (St. Louis), asking about opportunities to tutor kids in CS/computers. In each case, I got blown off, or referred to the city-wide magnet school, which teaches a tiny fraction of the most gifted students, many of them from the county.

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