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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?

#381

Post by PeterisP »

mschuster91 wrote: post #313
elorant wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and they can also chop your hand off or otherwise seriously harm you.

Fuck up something handling PII and the GDPR fines can seriously harm you...

Looking at all the documented (not that many) large GDPR fines, I haven't noticed any that are the result of a company (much less a developer) accidentally 'fucking up' - they are all the result of an intentional policy or an unethical management decision intentionally screwing people.

If you simply fuck up during your development, the most you'll get in practice is a letter from the regulator requiring you to change the fucked up thing; Fines arrive when management refuses to change the fucked up thing and tries to invent a loophole instead.

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

#382

Post by grogenaut »

pwython wrote: post #355
grogenaut wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost of these comments are from my friend about the his own driving habits with the car. It's his money he can blow through tires if he wants. He's the one calling himself a dbag. I think he's got redeeming qualities and some insecurities, it's why he's still a friend.

So it's 1 friend and not 10 that are self-proclaimed dbags. Well I guess add me to that list. - BMW M4 dbag owner who drives like a normal person.

Me to one of the others when looking at college photos: "is that an affliction shirt"... Them "yeah I was kinda a dbag post college till I got married". me "wait is that a wristband, were you watching UFC pay per view"... them "actually, yes".

Do you need me to enumerate all of them for you? :)

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

#383

Post by ArchitectAnon »

If you think plumbers don’t have undefined requirements and random deadlines out of their control then you don’t know enough about the industry. Most plumbers are juggling about 20 different projects plus call-outs and with the chaos in the UK construction industry right now, it’s very hard for any tradesperson to predict where they will be working and what they will be doing next week. You will have annoyed people constantly phoning you all day to find out when you are going to be at their site. However, plumbers are in huge demand at the moment and can probably easily invoice more than £300 per day, it’s just a question of the building sites being ready for them to work a few consecutive days in a row to get those billable hours racked up day after day. There are a lot of inefficiencies in project scheduling, especially with the currently difficulties.

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

#384

Post by enronmusk »

HL33tibCe7 wrote: post #232
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"also be paid eye-watering amounts of money." Thats not really true outside US

It is in the UK

What makes you say that? Outside of contracting and a few elite firms in London, being a developer in the UK is like being an accountant -- nothing special.

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

#385

Post by cgrealy »

simooooo wrote: post #230
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…

I feel like I’d sometimes like to try a job like a carpenter or builder, but simply to try building something in real life, rather than our often intangible products.

What's stopping you? You don't even have to give up working in tech.

I started learning joinery a year ago. I'm still terrible at it by professional standards, but I've made some bespoke furniture pieces for our house that would have cost 2-3x what I spent in tools and materials, and I enjoyed the process.

It's definitely something you can do in your spare time, and even if you don't decide to go pro, you've still learned a valuable life skill.

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

#386

Post by all2 »

lta wrote: post #191
jedberg wrote: post #64

This 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…

Yet, in the deep country side if France, I regularly see former engineer, or business school guys selling fruits at the market, opening restaurants or café, repairing old bikes in a workshop, etc. I don't think it's condescending, I just think it's an actual thing. A friend of nice from school stopped coding to open a brewery and I'm regularly considering starting a street food thing. Even started to get some of the…

My "retirement plan" is a book store/coffee shop. I don't want to code professionally forever.

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

#387

Post by philip1209 »

I've been thinking recently on the concept of "deadlines" in development teams, alongside roadmaps and deadlines. I wish teams asked each day "What's the most impactful thing I can do for the business today", and focused on that.

Constantly acting under time-constraints removes the creativity from building. And, focusing on short-term productive gains comes at the expense of long-term fundamental progress.

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

#388

Post by hamstercat »

mschuster91 wrote: post #313
elorant wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and they can also chop your hand off or otherwise seriously harm you.

Fuck up something handling PII and the GDPR fines can seriously harm you...

Comparing the permanent loss of a limb to a possible fine to a corporation for mishandling data is a bit out of touch.

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

#390

Post by umvi »

fortran77 wrote: post #295
umvi wrote: 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…

What do you mean by "practically have an EE degree?"

I have a computer engineering degree which requires all the electrical engineering core classes but swaps out some EE electives for CS electives
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