Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 881 posts

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

#471

Post by MooBah »

Retric wrote: post #389
fsargent wrote: post #318

I'd be an economics teacher. I'd love to teach High School and/or College economics. Since this is my own fantasy land, I'd be able to set my own curriculum. 1. Why do we work? (Jobs, Businesses, and the individual economy) 2. What is wealth, and how do I get it? (Saving, investment, real estate) 3. Is it supposed to be like this? (Capitalism, Government, modern political economy) 4. Systems Design (If you want to ch…

Economics 101 seems completely useless as taught, but it's just there so people understand the jargon. Unfortunately, it's often a general elective so that foundation wasted. So, I can see plenty of ways to make it useful. What is wealth? Things people want. Money = wealth not because it's directly useful but because people want it so you can trade it for things you want. Why do people want Money? Taxes, and loans. I…

Completely disagree..

Common people should know the philosophy which shaped the government thinks about their lives and productivity.

Yes econ is not a true science, because it is mostly conjecture supported by handpicked data, but at the same time, it is the only template we have created to think about the complex interactions in the competitive marketplace.

The power of the competitive market is the foundation for all capitalist action, economics is a way to understand how markets intersect and interact.

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

#472

Post by DanBC »

tazjin wrote: post #459
js2 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.jwz.org/about.html

I'm not sure if you linked to the right page / responded to the correct comment?

JWZ looks at referrer headers.

Right click and open in incognito window.

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

#473

Post by heurist »

Artist - currently trained in code, oil paints, and poetry (to a lesser extent). At the moment my creativity is bounded only by time, money, and a certain lack of technical expertise that would be gained through focused practice.

Scientist - researching complexity and complex systems, my longest-standing passion. I hope to one day contribute significantly to the study of cognition and artificial intelligence.

Politician - after thoroughly studying mathematics, economics, and law. I have strong opinions on humanity's direction and my views are not well represented in US government.

I haven't ruled out any of these for a future life. I'm hoping entrepreneurship will earn me enough cash while I'm still young to fund my future escapades.

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

#474

Post by curun1r »

I'd be a SCUBA instructor. I almost decided to take a few years off to do it so I could dive full time and put in as much time around live coral while there still is some, but an injury sidetracked me.

There's really nothing like living in some beautiful, tropical place where you get to spend a ton of time in nature. And diving regularly makes me feel 10 years younger.

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

#475

Post by ccostes »

jmsduran wrote: post #304

I would go into finance, maybe as a CFA or some sort of investment/financial analyst. If I could go back in time and restructure my career aspirations as a teenager, I would pursue a career as a medical doctor (possibly specializing in cardiology or clinical pathology). I don't know if this is normal, but I feel burnt out after working 6 years in the tech industry. So much so, that in my spare time I occupy myself wi…

Side note: having hobbies unrelated to your day job is perfectly normal and healthier, imo, than spending all of your time on one thing.

Life is all about balance.

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

#476

Post by derekp7 »

lloyd-christmas wrote: post #330
bungie4 wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is funny, I came into programming from being a high end cabinet maker. I had to give it up because I'm allergic to the components that make up the 'smell' of red oak. Which we worked with a lot. Theirs a real satisfaction in looking at a your work at the end of the day and being able to SEE it.

I've always whittled as a fun side hobby. My desire to do anything bigger is limited by a fear of the table saw. As a lefty, nothing in the shop plays nice with me. I'm too worried about losing a finger which would impact my income stream as well as my other hobby, piano. But, I still spend more time looking at joinery than I do on HN.

Most of the time when someone loses a finger on a table saw, it is because they were doing something that they know better than to do, or because they didn't know that a particular action is high risk. What really helps is to initially work with someone who knows what and what not to do, so they can correct any bad techniques that you have.

Common errors are things like trying to cut a piece that is too large / awkward, resulting in the wood pinching the blade, and also getting your fingers too close to the blade. Get used to using push sticks to push the wood piece through. Typically you'd make up a couple of them with notches in the ends, or with a rubber tip. If you are doing certain types of cross cuts, the table saw has a couple tracks and a jig that runs along them, to move the piece through. Also, most important, is to set the blade height correctly, so not much of the blade is sticking out through your work piece.

Of course, I've always wanted a computerized setup, where you specify where the cut should be, and the work piece gets robotically placed on the table saw and precision cut. (they have this in some of the larger cabinet shops).

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

#478

Post by bobhall1981 »

FigBug wrote: post #56

I'd buy a sailboat and take people on tours in Greece. Except I hate people, which is why I work in tech.

Sailboats are a lot cheaper than people think. Did you know there is no technical definition for "yacht"? In practice, it just means "a boat that's nicer than yours". Don't buy a yacht.

In Seattle there are plenty of sailboats under 30' that cost less than $10K. The moorage is the expensive part and costs around $400/month.

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

#479

Post by misiti3780 »

personlurking wrote: post #329
misiti3780 wrote: post #137

I would be a modern day philosopher/thinker (like Taleb, Dawkins, Harris). I would start with the classics and read everything, learn ancient Greek, Aramaic, as well as Italian, French and German (maybe Russian also, who knows) I would study the first proof in mathematics all the way up through modern probability theory. I would throw away my cell phone and do all of this work from a nice modern loft in the Trastever…

Take out the math part and make it outer Trastevere (far from the tourists) and you just stole my answer.

As long as you stay away from Basilica di Santa Maria, the tourists arn't a problem :)

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

#480

Post by tenpoundhammer »

jmsduran wrote: post #304

I would go into finance, maybe as a CFA or some sort of investment/financial analyst. If I could go back in time and restructure my career aspirations as a teenager, I would pursue a career as a medical doctor (possibly specializing in cardiology or clinical pathology). I don't know if this is normal, but I feel burnt out after working 6 years in the tech industry. So much so, that in my spare time I occupy myself wi…

I consider it normal to not work on side projects. How many other industries consider it normal to work 40 - 50 hours a week and then your "free" time working on other projects? Everyone I know clocks out and does something completely unrelated to their work in the off hours.
Post reply on HN