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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?

#321

Post by nefitty »

jackcosgrove wrote: post #251
nkozyra wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Did this behavior start with the coda of Office Space or has it always been a thing? No, it's such a cliche that's why Office Space chose to use it. The movie Lost in America explores this theme much more generally. The funniest thing about the end of Office Space is that by "dropping out" of software during the Y2k era and entering the construction field, the protagonist is just swapping one bubble for another, so…

The alternate ending changes the tenor of the entire film with just one line of dialogue. Peter is probably dissatisfied on a deeper level than any job could fix. Maybe he would find meaning as an entrepreneur or travelling or dropping out...

https://youtu.be/XK43Ureuiqc

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

#322

Post by throwaway675309 »

emteycz wrote: post #215
not1ofU wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Computer Pussy?.. no mate, computer hacker, and seeing as you all connected to my Wi-fi, my rent is covered for the next 2 months"....

Well I wanted to be a friend. They were cool to me, I was cool to them. It was all in good jest, with a bit of truth. ;-)

I guess but the phrasing that he used was unbelievably condescending and you just accepted it.

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

#323

Post by aeyes »

ctvo wrote: post #299
nkozyra wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> There's something so insidiously, backhandedly condescending about tech workers pining for the simplicity of an honest day's job that drives me nuts. Agreed. SO recently left a career in academia to get a job in tech as an entry level software developer. Says this is the easiest job they've ever had in their life, and wondered why they didn't start sooner. Developers have no idea how difficult even other white coll…

For a couple of years I worked at a rental shop at night and on weekends after my full-time IT job. It was the best thing ever because I got the feeling of actually getting something done, even if it was repetitive work. Not using my brain and not worrying about anything was nice.

I also temporarily quit my IT job because I felt burned, got a job cleaning floors and washing clothes. Again I loved the work.

If it weren't for the pay I wouldn't work in this field. I'm hoping to quit for good in a few years, switching careers doesn't make much sense at this point.

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

#324

Post by itronitron »

sneakymichael wrote: post #152
01100011 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An old, cynical engineer I once worked with left me with two indelible quotes: - If it was fun they'd charge money at the door. - If you can't write it down you can't do it. You can argue about the accuracy of those ideas, but more or less I've found them to be true.

"If you can't write it down you can't do it." - elaborate?

I think this might have two, maybe more meanings. The first is that if the person asking you to do something won't put it in writing, then it's probably not legal and therefore you can't do it. The second is that if you haven't thought through something well enough to write it down (the problem and the solution) then you haven't thought about it long enough to have found a solution.

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

#325

Post by nefitty »

taxcoder wrote: post #308
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be self-selecting tech workers who feel excessive stress from their job, or, really are disastisfied and ready for a change. I can confess to passing the person holding the STOP and SLOW sign at a construction site, and even saying out loud, "Now that's a job I could do." But when the fog clears, and the paycheck lands in the bank, it's, well... nah. I'd rather put up with the stress or ennui and have the cash…

Sometimes I consider going back to the trades (I have enough experience I could easily do so), but no way would I want to be a flagger. The boredom would kill me by noon the first day.

I was one of those ad sign kids as a teenager. It was mentally brutal. Thank God for podcasts.

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

#326

Post by ByThyGrace »

sneakymichael wrote: post #152
01100011 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An old, cynical engineer I once worked with left me with two indelible quotes: - If it was fun they'd charge money at the door. - If you can't write it down you can't do it. You can argue about the accuracy of those ideas, but more or less I've found them to be true.

"If you can't write it down you can't do it." - elaborate?

Maybe it means that the ability to spell out the entirety of the work process is an indication of the ability to fulfill the task.

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

#327

Post by taxcoder »

sjg007 wrote: post #236
pessimizer wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like a lot of replies like this assume that everybody is an upper-middle class white kid who hasn't had to shovel shit before. I've had a lot of much worse jobs than being a mechanic; jobs where I looked up from what I was doing when the mechanic walked in with unbelievable jealousy. I'm counting the days until CoPilot suddenly turns a bunch of John Galts into Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, but an additiona…

Honestly same for most doctors too. They are just human body mechanics.

And they only have two models to work on.

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

#328

Post by redisman »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #25

I'm a software engineer who does his own plumbing and his own electrical. Example projects: * rewire 1920's three story house with romex instead of knob & tube * install 6.6kW ground mount PV arrays and connect to grid * replumb two kitchens and three bathrooms * install water softener (all copper, dozens of required brazed joints) I love doing that stuff (carpentry and cabinet building too). But ... a couple of time…

That’s what I always thought about programming. So fun when you do it as a hobby and meh when you’re 10+ years into building business requirements

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

#329

Post by pwython »

grogenaut wrote: post #243
artemonster wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 can afford a BMW, I've chosen not to buy one. In 08, I technically bought one in a Mini. But it was better MPG (very good for the time), fun, and cute. My buddy has a fast BMW, 2x the price. He got real mad when he drove the mini when he realized that the grand tour guys are right, hot hatches are pretty fun. He was blowing through $1500 in tires every year or so as well. I told him he got the bmw cause he's a dbag…

Wow. You're all over the place with this comment dude.

> "Every one of my friends who has a BMW would agree they care about appearences and are a bit of a dbag, I have about 10..."

I would seriously reconsider who is the dbag among your 10 BMW friends. The people that care about what car someone drives are the ones venting about their buddies spending money on tires and quarts of oil online. Unless I missed the part where they made fun of your self-described "cute" Mini Cooper. Some people like quick cars, or cars that look nice.

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

#330

Post by redisman »

Apocryphon wrote: post #204
it_does_follow wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Doing work like this for other people is completely and utterly different from working on your own projects. To be fair this same logic likely is the source of stress for a lot of software engineers. Loving to program and programming for other people for a living initially seems like a brilliant way to make a living. For plenty of people it is, but for some what programming for money looks like and programming for…

To bring it back to the premise of this entire website: this is a reason why entrepreneurship becomes a recourse for some dissatisfied engineers. Startups, small-scale consultancies, side projects are all ways to code the programs they want to code.

I don’t think that’s a good escape. I tried owning my business and I hated it 10x more than being just a engineer. Instead of spending 70% of my hours doing what I like it became more like 30%
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