Politics. The only way to fix the broken stuff in the world. I have stood in a bunch of elections and lost them all. I'm not dissuaded yet.
Is that better than making money in tech and then buying a politician?
Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
501–510 of 881 posts
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#502I'd open a bookstore/cafe that sells tech and engineering books. We'd run tech classes in a space in the back, with a discount for vets and artists looking to change careers. I'd live in the apartment above the store, with a garden on the roof. The wifi would be phenomenal.
What is the point of owning tech books when a) much of the content is online and b) there are new developments in languages/frameworks all the time?
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Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#503I'd open a bookstore/cafe that sells tech and engineering books. We'd run tech classes in a space in the back, with a discount for vets and artists looking to change careers. I'd live in the apartment above the store, with a garden on the roof. The wifi would be phenomenal.
I did that after saving enough money in Silicon Valley back in 2008. I lived on the top floor. It was called USA Books and was the 1st English only bookstore in Vietnam. Naturally it was tech heavy http://wordhcmc.com/news-latest/in-the-papers/usa-books. Every month we d host a get together and do a storytelling event like the Moth. Good times :)
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#504Open a german bakery somewhere non-german.
As a non German living in Germany I think this is the best idea in this thread. German bakery products are the best and can be sold everywhere despite of their high end price.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#505Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am aware of the variety of electronic music genres and artists. I still believe electronic music is the lowest tier. I consider top 40 to be better than most electronic music. I did go through an electronic music phase for a while, and I find that to really enjoy it, you must be high.
I don't want to bring the discussion off topic, but I find that hard to believe. Some good electronic artists that I enjoy are Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Burial, and The Avalanches. I agree that there is a lot of crappy electronic music on the internet but I think that's true of any genre. Why do you think its the lowest tier?
I'd say the Avalanches is mostly hip hop. Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, I don't think they are any good or different that the other hundreds of artists in those genres.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#506I'd like to be a workplace safety inspector or ergonomics consultant and help people do their jobs better without risking injuring themselves as much.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#507Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a sense, I do this. I work/earn 10% of what I could, and spend 90% of my time studying all the things I want, moving around different countries. On one hand it's very nice but on the other, earning little gets tiresome (especially now in my 30s). My 2017 is for reversing the percentage.
How do you find consistent work doing that? I try to work part time as a developer and usually either my clients pressure me to full time or hire someone else who will.
I'm a VA with one long-time client who can only offer me part-time work, plus the occassional small project related to the work. I also sometimes get a few side jobs from previous employers. For the last several years, I've generally worked an hour per day, M-F.
Living abroad on dollars, and staying out of native-English speaking countries and Nordic ones, it's quite easy to live an average lifestyle on around $600/mo. However, to live like this you end up going through a few dry periods where you really are struggling. Three-fourths of the time, I'm living the same lifestyle as I did in the US, except it's more interesting and I'm not working a full-time job I don't like just to make ends meet.
My free time is spent exploring cities, learning languages which I teach myself and then practice in-country, reading and watching documentaries about everything that interests me (I was born curious), volunteering and working on some online side projects (non-monetary) related to growing my knowledge.
If this were a few hundred years ago, I would be the first person to sign up for overseas voyages, but since there are no more unexplored/untouched lands these days (barring the final frontier), I try to do the next best thing - explore subjects and places that are, in the least, not previously explored by me. Another way to look at it is to say I was born (SF in the early 80s) a few decades late, otherwise I would have grown up hippie and probably fit right in (rather than have friends who make amounts I can't even comprehend).
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#508I'd be interested in working in media and/or politics given how significant their impacts are (and how rapidly things are changing).
It'd be far less likely to work out but I'd also love to be able to professionally produce music.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#509Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Consider hand tools. It's a bit more labor, but if you're not building for profit anyway, you may enjoy it more. I have some thoughts on this on my blog, see my profile.
Thanks, that's a bunch of great info. I'll be looking forward to an update on your bench.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#510Pro event photography.