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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?

#711

Post by rev_bird »

jawns wrote: post #462
rev_bird wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a former journalist myself (and someone who longs to write books), I'd be very interested in your thoughts on someone doing this career swap away from tech into writing nonfiction. I realize this isn't particularly related to the thread at hand, but do you have any advice for "breaking into the biz"? It looks like the baby experiments book was published by a "conventional" publisher, too, which seems increasingly…

Regarding breaking into the biz ... 1) I found an agent by searching on aaronline.org and sending book-proposal queries to agents who seemed like they were a good fit. 2) Although the costs of self-publishing have gone down, the problem with self publishing, for my type of nonfiction anyway, is when it comes to distribution. Getting the book into brick-and-mortar stores, getting the book reviewed by reputable outlets…

Thanks for the response, this is really helpful. I'm unfortunately pretty well-acquainted with the marketing shortcomings of the self-publishing arena, but it's good to know it's not impossible to just start sending agents old-school query letters.

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

#712

Post by rev_bird »

jimbokun wrote: post #230
rev_bird wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see how this would be a heavenly existence, but it seems like a stretch to call it a "career," in the sense I think the original poster meant. Sure, there are some people who have managed to become famous authors doing those things, but this basically seems like saying "I would switch careers to being a celebrity."

Yeah, that's the joke.

Yeah, in hindsight I pretty aggressively missed the point.

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

#714

Post by livatlantis »

arethuza wrote: post #169
ainiriand wrote: post #150

I am slowly working towards becoming a fiction writer. At the moment I am a software engineer and I feel I can make it if I put enough effort into it. My specialties are psychological terror and sci-fi.

"My specialties are psychological terror" What about moving into project management?

... it hurts from laughing too much. Wow.

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

#716

Post by ianmcgowan »

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.

How far north are we talking here? Calistoga North, or Lassen North? Cause we can keep going further, if we have to...

http://www.oldfaithfulgeyser.com/ https://www.nps.gov/lavo/index.htm

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

#718

Post by mnemotronic »

bungie4 wrote: post #277
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…

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 approached workworking like software -- iterative refinement. In the physical world that left me with a pile of sawdust.

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

#719

Post by rev_bird »

arrmn wrote: post #705
MCompeau wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I've not seen a wooden cake topper like this, but it's very common (and used to be pretty much mandatory, if I understand right) to have something on top of the cake, usually little figurines representing the bride and groom.

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

#720

Post by sedachv »

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…

No need to quit your job or move to Italy. Turn notifications off on your phone, get an espresso machine for your home, buy some decent table wine. Get the books you want to read and start reading them. Go to the library on the weekends. Arrange to get to/from work on public transit and your commute turns into reading time (90 minutes a day for me).

I have a full-time job and read as many philosophy/sociology and math books as I ever have. You can actually try out your plan of full-time study on your next vacation - I bet you will bore of it in three or four days.

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