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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?

#701

Post by tetraodonpuffer »

jay-anderson wrote: post #555

Music Typesetting. I've published a book and have been involved with a few related projects. I do pretty good work here. It pains me showing up to rehearsal and seeing poor quality sheet music on my stand. It's worse when these mistakes cause stoppage during rehearsals--usually easy mistakes that the person creating the end product could have fixed saving rehearsal time.

very interesting, I've sometimes done transcriptions etc. in Sibelius for personal use and it sure takes quite some time!

I have never been able to get things looking as nice as something like the Henle Urtext editions though, wonder what they use to put those together.

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

#702

Post by steveax »

komali2 wrote: post #541
CIPHERSTONE wrote: post #314

Would like to be a back country forest ranger. Someone who does work out in the remote woods. Not one of the rangers that has to deep with the public. The problem like most of us have is that our position and tenure in IT has lead to salaries that make such a change (and reduction in pay) almost impossible. Add kids, etc. and it gets set permanently in the dream category. I know the logical response to this statement…

Oh man there's some sort of volcanic park north of Berkely, CA that we visited once, and up on some mountain was a firewatch tower with a dude just chilling in there looking for smoke. He worked up there in 2 week shifts, just up on a mountain reading books and watching for smoke. Seemed like an awesome job, especially if you could get a data tether (he did) and do some programming on the side.

I've thought about this ever since visiting the Needles fire watch tower and meeting Margee while climbing there. Sadly, that tower burned down in 2011 [1].

[1]: http://www.buckrock.org/needles.html

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

#703

Post by freddyc »

shimon wrote: post #390
lloyd-christmas wrote: post #330

Earlier 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.

SawStop and Bosch both make excellent table saws with a safety retraction system. Also, you can do a lot of woodworking with other tools, like a circular saw, track saw, miter saw, or even a simple hand saw. I've built a couple of bookcases and a built-in storage bench using only circular and hand saws, though a table saw would have made the work easier and probably straighter.

Yeah, a circular saw + square will get you a long way and provide an inexpensive way to determine whether you like it enough to invest in the more expensive tools. Of course you could end up like me, still using that same circular saw years later while routinely promising yourself that next year you'll invest in a good table saw ...

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

#705

Post by arrmn »

MCompeau wrote: post #388
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…

I'm basically in the process of pursuing this dream. Previously I was an architect in Canada where we did a lot of large scale wood structures using sophisticated computational fabrication techniques. These types of sophisticated projects though were fairly risky for property developers making them somewhat rare. So I struck out on my own to try to develop a small business around the most 'automatable' work I could a…

So it's basically wood that people put on their cake, never saw something like this. Is common in Canada & US?

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

#706

Post by nitrogen »

bryondowd wrote: post #697
nitrogen wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I often wonder if it's just people who have a different concept of what is a necessity vs a luxury due to never having to go without for a significant part of their lives, or people who have just never lived outside of the cities or other expensive areas. In my case, I lived on the lower end of the income spectrum for much of my childhood, and lived even poorer while building my startup in a low-cost area. So it is…

Exactly. The GP of my comment talks about 100k not being lifechanging money. I know for a fact that it would have been dramatically lifechanging if my mother or stepfather had been making anywhere near 100k during my childhood, even adjusted for inflation.

I can really see both sides of the argument here. 100k is not permanently life changing for the recipient. But if it can be earned sustainably, it is a pretty big difference for the recipient's children, if any.

Ways in which it's not life changing: probably have to live in a more expensive area, which eats into the benefit. Still have to play the office game with people you may or may not like. Still have to save up and budget if you want to travel. You won't live in a mansion with a full-time staff. You still won't have enough money to trade money for popularity if popularity is something you lack and want.

Ways it is life changing: can afford more nutritious and more enjoyable food, which helps make life more sustainable. Can provide better food/clothes/schooling for any children (I have none of my own), which gives them an advantage when they reach adulthood. Can live two or three emergencies away from devastation instead of just one.

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

#707

Post by notyourwork »

leesalminen wrote: post #392
eel wrote: post #264

I would love to get into structural engineering. I just can't justify the cost of school, and the end salaries are not even going to be better than a software developer's. Or maybe be an auto mechanic. Or a woodworker/metal worker/welder. Or a farmer (seriously). Part of me wants to embrace the city and "book" knowledge to further my career, and part of me wants to abandon it and go back to a rural life and just make…

My grandfather was a farmer. It always seemed to be quite rewarding and challenging. I've thought about going down that path myself.

Same here - my father's side of the family was from the country. Acres of farm land, crops, and animals. My father was one of the first to shift into a non-farming job. Growing up I always had chances to work on the farm or spend summers down there. There are times I dream about what life would be like for me as a farmer today. Also the reward of a hard day's work is under appreciated in today's society (if you ask me).

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

#708

Post by rev_bird »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #538
rev_bird wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This somehow raises more questions than answers, for me at least: You work full-time restoring a single property? Do you work for the owner, or is it maintained by a nonprofit/government? I'm guessing you work for a company, or are some kind of subcontractor? This sounds amazing.

It's one of the countless historic houses in the UK and Europe. Similar age as and nearer Downton Abbey than mere house! Elizabethan (late 1500s) and numerous alterations since, so plenty is in need of care and restoration. There's gardens, stables, barns, and a number of outbuildings and estate houses for staff in older times. They still have some tenants and lettings, managed by the estate. The lettings are maintai…

This is fascinating, thank you for responding. What an interesting way to engage with history. (I'm from America; anything here from the 1500s is an archaeological site.)

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

#709

Post by mnemotronic »

Glassblowing. I've been doing software professionally since 1978. When I first started learning programming I was amazed how easy it was, and how hard it seemed for everyone else. 35 years later I tried glassblowing (hot-shop, not torch) and had the same experience.

Unfortunately I can't afford to pursue my hot glass dreams. My second job is providing palliative care for my wife. That takes up more than my paycheck and most of my time when I'm not writing code.

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

#710

Post by livatlantis »

NumberCruncher wrote: post #504
Pica_soO wrote: post #308

Open 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.

That and I never understood why knödel never took off. I love knödel! I actually brought some back the last time I was in Germany (before learning I could buy them right here in Paris).
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