Carpentry, probably anything that required manual labor with some creativity needed.
Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
11–20 of 55 posts
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#12Years ago, the best software engineer I've ever known took a break from programming and became a long-haul truck driver.
He found it a fantastic experience. He claimed that there is more overlap between the skills needed between the two than you'd think (and that he met a surprising number of other truckers who used to be software engineers).
If I decided to change careers, I'd seriously investigate that.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#13Run a skydiving dropzone. If done well, it can break even money-wise, and you meet some pretty awesome people.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#14I would love to be a fiction writer. I am not good at fiction writing at all. But this is something I always romanticize about. Something about sitting in cafes or home and typing away seems like a perfect day to me. No need to debug, troubleshoot production issues, attend meetings, submit TPS reports, etc. Just you and your writing.
I spent four years in college for English literature. You can do that or you can just read the book 'Self-editing for Fiction Writers' and do the same thing in a tenth of the time. The other thing you could do is to join a writers workshop, in person is always good but there's no reason why you couldn't join some remote thing. The caveat is that however big the workshop is you need to read everyone else's work and co…
What material do you recommend that is on the subject of writing compelling fiction?
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#15- Psychologist / Counselor / Professor: Huge impact opportunity. Society is so career and status focused nobody pays attention to emotional needs.
There is opportunity help others understand and express the feelings of why they suffer, instead of acting out in indirect/critical, dysfunctional ways, which compounds the problems. That is just benefits that can be attained at ground floor.
Please check out Attachment Theory and Schema Therapy: http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/online/inge_orig..., https://www.guilford.com/excerpts/young.pdf
- History professor: Because history rocks.
Aside: Montemayor, an independent history documentary maker, has a documentary on The Battle of Midway at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd8_vO5zrjo. If you would like to support his work he has a Paypal on his channel page!
- Flipping houses: Upgrade carpentry from tech level 0 to tech level 3 and get property + credit line
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#16Voice actor
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#17I'd be a machinist. I love watching machinists on youtube turn a hunk of metal into a useful part. It looks like it has the right mix of problem solving, thinking and labor.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#18Lay concrete
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#19Coach a soccer team. Takeover a coffee farm in Ethiopia and run some experiments. Create a small internet holding company.
Re: Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
#20I've thought about starting a financial planning charity to help middle class and up people get out of debt (low hanging fruit), but I think I'm more likely to try to become a fireman or something else physical. I just feel so much more satisfied by doing a bunch of physical work or charitable work than technical work, so once I don't need income, I'll switch it up.