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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?

#761

Post by chiph »

SigmundA wrote: post #751
chiph wrote: post #321

Recreational vehicle repair. Sales are way up since the industry almost died after 2007/2008, and the manufacturers are producing crap quality in order to satisfy sales demand. It's not uncommon for someone to spend $400k on a new RV and have to take their new purchase back for a months worth of rework -- only to find out there's no service openings for 5 months. What's stopping me is the up-front capital requirement…

I have thought about this too along with selling the house and going full time in the RV. One interesting sub-niche of this is RV solar installation, this seems to be booming as well with few who know how to do it right. AMSolar is the premier one and are booked solid months out.

As well as LiFePO4 battery conversions for the well-heeled boondocker.

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

#762

Post by nether »

olingern wrote: post #655

I read a kuro5hin post about a programmer turned courier, "A Coder in Courierland," ( http://atdt.freeshell.org/k5/story_2005_3_19_133129_548.html ) and became pretty infatuated with the idea over a five or six months. The recession hit, lay offs began, and then I was a courier. I did it for a little over three years. It had its ups and downs. I returned to software development and have found a cosier community in th…

Aside: ridiculous how influential k5 was on my life. Their first article on coffee turned me into a coffee snob before third wave cafes became the rage. The article on ultralight backpacking started a lifelong obsession, eventually leading me to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail.

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

#763

Post by contingencies »

HockeyPlayer wrote: post #439
sailfast wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Save the money and deliver sailboats. Large market for trained crew to take yachts from Point A to Point B. :) No people except those you bring. Free yacht.

Can you tell us more about the training and experience required to be delivery crew?

Just a heads up that a friend of mine worked in this direction for years but was rejected from a captain's license because he had that partial color-blindness thing lots of people have, and that reportedly was enough to disqualify him permanently. Most of a decade "wasted" (if wasted is defined as sailing yachts around the Med and picking up languages). He now sells wines in Sydney, with the benefit of correct pronunciation in four or five languages.

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

#764

Post by contingencies »

bobhall1981 wrote: post #478
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.

You can skip moorage if your have a trailerable boat. They are very common. I personally owned two second hand Wetas, used them for a year, and sold them for a profit. It was great fun, and I would do it again. If you can get some friends together and import four at once in a single shipping container, it's way cheaper.

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

#765

Post by ngokevin »

snicky wrote: post #262
meigwilym wrote: post #122

I live on the edge of a national park. In summer they advertise for Wardens to help with patrolling the park, on a voluntary basis. If I could afford it I'd happily code for 6 months of the year, then be a warden for the rest.

Try this first: http://www.firewatchgame.com/ :)

Makes me want to do it more.

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

#766

Post by derekp7 »

mattmanser wrote: post #532
derekp7 wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 / awkwa…

That you have an opinion on this and know the circumstances seems to suggest you know multiple people who have lost their fingers, which would suggest the risk is actually quite high.

A guy I used to work with had cut off 4 fingers on his table saw, 2 were able to be re-attached. He admitted that he was doing something stupid.

Also, when I was a kid, my Dad had almost lost the tip of his finger in a snow blower -- he was cleaning out the chute when his glove caught on the blade. Again, something that you aren't supposed to do. For myself, I've had a number of close calls -- sometimes a piece of wood gets ejected in the direction of the blade spin. I've learned to stand to the side, and now directly in front of the saw. Also learned the hard way that you don't support a board on both ends, and cut in the middle with a circular saw -- blade pinch, and a nasty bruise results. Again, if I had someone standing there that could warn me, I would have corrected my technique before getting hurt.

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

#767

Post by rak00n »

olingern wrote: post #655

I read a kuro5hin post about a programmer turned courier, "A Coder in Courierland," ( http://atdt.freeshell.org/k5/story_2005_3_19_133129_548.html ) and became pretty infatuated with the idea over a five or six months. The recession hit, lay offs began, and then I was a courier. I did it for a little over three years. It had its ups and downs. I returned to software development and have found a cosier community in th…

> The type of work you do affects your outlook on life.

I wish you had elaborated on this.

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

#768

Post by saghm »

mrlyc wrote: post #691
kzisme wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you get into doing system/embedded programming?

I did most of an electronic engineering course and discovered that I like software more than hardware. After programming portable barcode readers and interactive voice response systems, I wrote a Windows device driver at one company then applied to write Linux device drivers at another. I was strictly honest during the job interview, saying I wanted to write device drivers but I had done only one for Windows and none…

> I succeeded and even trained someone else how to do it. When we started, he didn't know C all that well so I split the drivers into hard and easy parts and gave him the easy ones. We wrote about six drivers together. I made his parts harder and harder until he was able to write a driver on his own.

This is a pretty amazing way to teach someone something as complex as device drivers. It sounds like you did an excellent job mentoring him.

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

#769

Post by [deleted] »

ianmcgowan wrote: post #716
komali2 wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

[deleted]

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

#770

Post by therealdrag0 »

ramonvillasante wrote: post #365

Sustainable development, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development choosing topics and skills you are passionate about. It's fantastic for people, planet and yourself

I'd like to do software relating to this. But most of what I've seen is low level or hardware/mechanical.
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