Let me be frank:
That shit ain’t worth it.
Go be an electrician instead.
Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
171–180 of 470 posts
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#172Earlier 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)
The comedic term is "punching up" [0]. It's generally more acceptable to make jokes about the (presumably) wealthy owners of BMWs and Audis, versus "punching down" by making fun of people who comparatively face more disadvantages.
[0] Urban Dictionary: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Punch%20Up
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#173It's worth noting that these skilled trades (eg plumbers, electricians, carpenters) have wildly different experiences in different countries.
In the US they aren't actually paid that well, particularly compared to software engineering (in the US).
But go to Australia and you'll get a vastly different experience. For one, just being a plumber is strictly government controlled. You need a license that requires a four year apprenticeship. There are pros and cons to this system but you will generally find that the base level of skill and competence of any Australian tradesmen will be far higher than that of many other countries.
I had a Australian friend who was a plumber in the UK where you can be a plumber by just calling yourself a plumber. The stories of incompetence he'd tell were shocking.
Trades in Australia earn more than software engineers do and will generally have a much better standard of living, straight up. It's one reason why I, as a software engineer, moved from Australia to the US. If you want to be a plumber, you may want to go the other way, assuming you're willing and able to get certified.
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#174Sure, 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…
So I get it, but also people are way overhyping software development in this thread (which is expected on a tech website). The only thing going for it is an insane salary and lots of us don’t have those.
I’ve worked in biotech/healthcare and have never had anything close to a FAANG salary even in a HCOL area. I burned out and am just now taking a month off to just exist. I have had the same thoughts about going blue-collar as the OP, but taking a month to figure out if it’s just general burn out or if I need a career change.
I’ve been working since I was very young and have had all sorts of jobs: door-to-door sales, lifeguard, retail, waiting tables, property maintenance, cleaning homes from flood/fire damage, and on and on. I loved a lot of those jobs, though I didn’t do any for more than 2.5 years (or even just a summer).
I don’t know if it was the pandemic or what, but never been so miserable at a job in my life and can’t imagine staring at a computer 40+ hours/week right now. I was literally staring into the Taco Bell drive-through window 6 weeks ago thinking I’d rather be working there and learn how to make a quesadilla in 1min than sit at a desk, which was the last straw for me.
Plus with software it’s all about the skills. So if I drop out for awhile and decide to get back in a few years later, I should be fine after a couple months of self-study.
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#175This last summer/fall really put things in perspective for me. We did a major outdoor renovation at our house, which involved landscapers, plumbers, electricians, and carpenters. Every day these guys would show up at 8am and long sleeves and jeans and hard hats, work super hard, pee in a port-a-potty, and be exhausted by the end of the day. They worked out in the 100 degree heat as well as the rain as the job got nea…
There's something so insidiously, backhandedly condescending about tech workers pining for the simplicity of an honest day's job that drives me nuts. Yes, there are almost always jobs with less strenuous requirements on time, fewer requirements and late nights. But the average tech worker has a pretty good gig. And if they don't they can go down the street in 2022 and get one. Trades scratch a similar itch to develop…
I think it's a manifestation of the inherent feeling that many of us developers are doing something mostly useless compared to others. We know that the world could be different and we could be working jobs that are physically and/or mentally difficult but also fair and useful. Ursula K. Le Guin puts it thus, from her novel "This Dispossessed":
"A child free from the guilt of ownership and the burden of economic competition will grow up with the will to do what needs doing and the capacity for joy in doing it. It is useless work that darkens the heart. The delight of the nursing mother, of the scholar, of the successful hunter, of the good cook, of the skillful maker, of anyone doing needed work and doing it well—this durable joy is perhaps the deepest source of human affection, and of sociality as a whole."
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#176> Instead of my current career path where I’m having to constantly re-prioritize, put out fires, report to multiple leads with different agendas, scope and build things that have never been done, ect.
> Maybe I’m misguided but in other fields one becomes a master of their craft over time. In CS/data science, I feel like you are forever a junior because your experience decays over time.
I get where this person is coming from, but:
- Improving at the things in the first list is part of mastery, unfortunately.
- A lot of old experience is still valuable. But one needs to be able to transfer/translate the important lessons to new contexts as tools, frameworks and languages change.
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#177So yes, I bought a fixer upper 2 years ago at the beginning of the pandemic because I had an existential moment where I was fed up with the seemingly futility and abstractness of software development. Turns out physical labor is even more futile after the novelty wears out.
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#178This last summer/fall really put things in perspective for me. We did a major outdoor renovation at our house, which involved landscapers, plumbers, electricians, and carpenters. Every day these guys would show up at 8am and long sleeves and jeans and hard hats, work super hard, pee in a port-a-potty, and be exhausted by the end of the day. They worked out in the 100 degree heat as well as the rain as the job got nea…
There's something so insidiously, backhandedly condescending about tech workers pining for the simplicity of an honest day's job that drives me nuts. Yes, there are almost always jobs with less strenuous requirements on time, fewer requirements and late nights. But the average tech worker has a pretty good gig. And if they don't they can go down the street in 2022 and get one. Trades scratch a similar itch to develop…
I had a manager who once abandoned software engineering to become a jeweler. There’s definitely a patronizing romanticizing of the trades in threads like this, but the yearning to switch to physical work doesn’t have to be fulfilled only by plumber/carpenter/electrician roles mentioned here. There are plenty of other jobs that require more physical work, from aestheticians to dentistry.
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#179Only because of all the moral hazard in programming, being completely wrapped up in rent-seeking, surveillance, dark patterns, and marketing in general.
The problem is that the trades are hard as hell to learn and get into unless you're connected. It's easier to become a programmer than a plumber/carpenter/electrician.
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#180I should’ve been a cowboy.
My brother considered doing that in his 20s. A lot of demand where he lives. I was surprised to learn it was still a real job, but of course it is. Someone has to ride the fences and herd the cattle.