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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?

#431

Post by blindmute »

techsupporter wrote: post #361
maccard wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. Some of us are perfectly happy doing what we're doing, and to continue with a balance of work and not work for a long long time.

I'm exactly in this position, yet when I said in another thread that I was quite content with my salary that's mid-tier for Seattle (but fantastically wealthy in a lot of the rest of the country), at a company that's all but certain to be around for at least the rest of my working lifetime, doing work to enable that company to do work that I consider useful (we're a medical practice group), and had no plans to change…

No, money is fungible, and its marginal utility only decreases when you have enough to retire. Another 5k is another 5k, meaning another 2 months that you don't have to labor. Dollars linearly correspond to future free time.

You really will get back that night you spent working: it likely afforded you many more nights retired, free.

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

#432

Post by nkozyra »

NoPicklez wrote: post #417
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 don't see why it's condescending. If you have worked in tech your entire life, in an office in front of a computer then it's completely okay IMO to wonder what it would be like working a trade. For instance, my entire family works in mining, some riggers, some electricians and others environmental surveying. I am the only one that works in front of a computer all day. When they get home from work, that's it they sw…

> it's completely okay IMO to wonder what it would be like working a trade.

That's not the issue. The issue is assuming it's something you could "just do" to remove the stress in your life, as though the job is trivial.

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

#433

Post by sidpatil »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #141
emteycz wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah lol... The apartment building next to mine was having some reconstruction and the guys working on the exterior saw into my office windows (5th story). I started talking to them, had a cigarette together when I saw them lighting up, shared my WiFi password with them, etc, just being friendly. After a few days the guys asked "so, do you ever work man, or are you one of those computer pussies?". I agreed I'm a comp…

I've done manual labor. Mowed lawns for a guy who had his own company, he drove us around in the truck, we'd hit the grass with his mowers. Worked fast food, retail. Been a dishwasher, bus boy.... I think there is something abut the manual labor that gives you a daily sense of accomplishment. The lawn work for sure. Arriving at a tatty yard, leaving it looking like a golf course.... That sort of day-to-day sense of a…

> I think there is something abut the manual labor that gives you a daily sense of accomplishment.

I think a good part of it is also the fact that manual labor involves physical activity, which in itself can help to improve mood.

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

#434

Post by digitaltrees »

nkozyra wrote: post #425
digitaltrees wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s only condescending, because you’re assuming a social hierarchy where software development is more prestigious or desirable than one of the trades and that physical labor is harder than non-physical labor. The implication then is that a software developer wishing to become a plumber is ungrateful for their “better” job and naive for wanting a “harder” and “worse” job mistakingly believing it to be easier. Would y…

> It’s only condescending, because you’re assuming a social hierarchy where software development is more prestigious or desirable than one of the trades and that physical labor is harder than non-physical labor. I'm very confused by this because I'm arguing the exact opposite: that people in tech romanticize these "simple" trades of the people. > Would you call out a plumber for being condescending in wishing for the…

Your overly focused on the perception that any job is simple. What’s really going on is people see the stress and difficulty of their current job and underestimate other jobs. It’s not condescending, it’s just self focused and naive.

I am pointing this out because by understanding why people actually complain it will deepen empathy for the complaining person and also avoid creating a pseudo classist framing of the situation which is actually not only inaccurate but harmful for understanding the people involved.

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

#436

Post by Gunnerhead »

laxatives wrote: post #121

A professor of mathematics noticed that his kitchen sink at his home leaked. He called a plumber. The plumber came the next day and sealed a few screws, and everything was working as before. The professor was delighted. However, when the plumber gave him the bill a minute later, he was shocked. "This is one-third of my monthly salary!" he yelled. Well, all the same he paid it and then the plumber said to him, "I unde…

I feel silly because I don't understand the joke.

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

#437

Post by 1123581321 »

ryandvm wrote: 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…

Is this comment actually based on experience with trade labor? Why do you think those words are incisive?

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

#438

Post by 1123581321 »

lokalfarm wrote: post #292
grumple wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You get those from coding too. Sitting in a chair all day wrecks your neck and back, mouse and keyboard use causes carpal tunnel as well. Standing still instead of sitting causes other issues. You have to move around, not remain fixed. There's a balance somewhere between being a dev and being a plumber.

If your idea of physical abuse is carpal tunnel from using a mouse + keyboard, don't go into the trades. Seriously. Go to Home Depot, buy a stick of 1" copper pipe, a Ridgid (wheel) pipe cutter, and some sandpaper. Now go to your backyard, in the cold, kneel on some bricks/concrete, and spend 30 minutes cutting off little portions of the copper stick, and then clean the ends with sandpaper. For bonus points, consider…

It's hard to compare aches before acclimation to physical work with chronic conditions that develop over years of long, daily sedentary periods. The keyboard being more comfortable on day one isn't the point, right?

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

#439

Post by karimf »

Gunnerhead wrote: post #436
laxatives wrote: post #121

A professor of mathematics noticed that his kitchen sink at his home leaked. He called a plumber. The plumber came the next day and sealed a few screws, and everything was working as before. The professor was delighted. However, when the plumber gave him the bill a minute later, he was shocked. "This is one-third of my monthly salary!" he yelled. Well, all the same he paid it and then the plumber said to him, "I unde…

I feel silly because I don't understand the joke.

Every plumber there is a professor in disguise?

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

#440

Post by SenHeng »

bartread wrote: post #69
lolinder wrote: post #23

This comment and its top reply are dead on: https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/sm54ri/a... No job is going to get you away from unreasonable people with unreasonable expectations, and most trades introduce a bunch of other unpleasant things that you'd have to deal with. It's all tradeoffs. Someone may legitimately prefer the stresses of a trade to the stresses of working in software, and that's great…

I agree. I work in tech and, outside of work, I'm refurbishing my house. I'm enjoying the refurbishment but would I do a trade as a full time job? Hell no. Crawling around in my loft sistering joists is satisfying work but also, if it were to become the kind of thing I did over a long period of time, would 100% wreck my knees. And that's just one downside. There are plenty more: e.g., all the ancillary guff you have…

I've done the same time. Spent nights and weekends remodeling my home over 5 years. It was never 'finished', and the quality was never as good as the bits that I did hire out. The entire time I felt like I was living in a construction site.

When I got my 2nd home, I hired pros. The pros tell me they want their kids in my job.

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