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Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

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Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#81
I think the sentiment behind the OP and agreeing comments are twofold:

1. The desire to create tangible, physical products and improvements rather than abstract ones- some of which never see the light of day outside of the sprint.

2. The desire to expend physical labor and use one’s body rather than only one’s mind.

I think the trades would fulfill that but maybe more software engineers who experience this anxiety would be happier if they pursued some sort of skilled craftsman hobby, or even career. Being a construction carpenter is one thing, becoming an artisan who makes bespoke wooden products is probably closer to the lifestyle (and compensation) that’s being idealized here.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#82
post #7

I actually think it would be fun to "retire" and go to trade school to become an electrician. Not forever, just long enough to learn the trade. I practically have an EE degree, but since I only ever worked with low voltage, mostly digital circuits I still have poor electrical intuition for things like residential AC. Realistically though, I think my secondary post-retirement career will end up being a teacher of some…

Being an electrician sounds great until it's the middle of summer and you have to go in an attic or under a trailer.

You could just not take jobs like that. It sounds like a semi-retirement job means you'd be financial stable enough to not need to take every request you get.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I like how in our progressive society it is absolutely frowned upon to invoke any association between observable societal statistics and, say, race/gender, but its okay to bash BMW/audi drivers. So, user civilized, why is it okay for you to generalize? And why exactly you were sorry? (I am aware that this is a tangent discussion to the original post, but it may be an interesting one)

I take care not to violate society's statistical taboos.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#84
post #7

I actually think it would be fun to "retire" and go to trade school to become an electrician. Not forever, just long enough to learn the trade. I practically have an EE degree, but since I only ever worked with low voltage, mostly digital circuits I still have poor electrical intuition for things like residential AC. Realistically though, I think my secondary post-retirement career will end up being a teacher of some…

Being an electrician sounds great until it's the middle of summer and you have to go in an attic or under a trailer.

Leaving aside problems with heat, it really helps to be small. One of our electricians was about 5' 2" and previously served on submarines in the US Navy. Another job where being of small stature is a benefit.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#85

In fleeting moments of madness, maybe. But aside from that, of course not! We're so unbelievably lucky to be able to do things that we're good at, most of us enjoy (to some extent), and also be paid eye-watering amounts of money. It's pretty easy to forget how low the median income really is when one's social group is exclusively tech or other professional occupations (lawyers, doctors, etc). Meeting somebody who's d…

"also be paid eye-watering amounts of money."

Thats not really true outside US

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#86
I shifted away from EE toward programming stuff because physical objects are kind of a pain in the butt. You plug in the wrong wire and the magic smoke permanently escapes. No way to put it back in. I'm sure plumbers have a similar problem, except it involves poop water everywhere. No thanks.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#87
I do occasional plumbing repairs like replacing faucets and toilet fixtures at my home using YouTube video. I hate the experience. The water is cold. My knees hurt when squatting and crouching for long stretches of time. I do end up using plumbers putty and plumbers tape and I am terrified at the thought of accidentally flooding my home.

I have a lot of urges but becoming a plumber is not one of them.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#88
post #67
post #2

No. Plumbing is gross and wet. Carpentry, on the other hand...

Carpentry is brutal and pays badly... but I agree, poop is gross. Electrician, on the other hand?

> Electrician, on the other hand?

Still involves a surprising amount of carpentry. And finding where the hell the wires were run in other people's "wtf were these fools thinking?" grade framing. and other fun stuff.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#89
For me it's trying as much as possible to get my happiness/satisfaction from something that's under my own control as much as possible. Being in a trade is the exact opposite of that because you're 100% dependent on people telling you what they need done. As others have pointed out, every job sucks to some degree. And unless you're truly operating in isolation you'll always deal with people, most of whom you don't share any common ground with. Try being in a trade as a woman, a person of color, trans, etc and you'd quickly realized what a privileged cushy field we're in. Not saying there isn't discrimination among us but our field in my experience tends to be on the more progressive, tolerant side of things.

None of what we're doing here matters at all in the grand scheme of things. At least the vast majority. We're not contributing to anything useful only a broken economic system, we're not making the world a better, more sustainable, more peaceful place. It's the opposite, the people that contribute more division, get paid the most it seems. Once I realized that I was able to steer my attention to opportunities that at least contain a sliver of something positive, be it supporting movements, clean energy, something that on your death bed you could argue didn't make the world a worse place. Personally, that's all I think I can do because at this point in my life I'm not in a position to make any larger positive change by myself on a societal level.

I'm sorry if this is too ranty, I'm just in a very negative headspace these days with everything that's going on.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#90
post #62

Sure, you hate your boring, safe, lucrative job in software development until you become a plumber and find yourself on your hands and knees beside a disassembled toilet for the 87th time. Splattered in fetid wastewater, pulling stuck condoms out of the floor while the idiot renter stands above you dragging on his Juul, and you realize, maybe I didn't have it so bad after all. The "grass is always greener" is probabl…

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