821–830 of 915 posts
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i think that , if land and materials were cheap, genz or genX or any gen would learn to build their own homes. We ve actually been doing that for thousands of years
Its not just a land/materials problem, its a zoning/permits issue in many places.
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Perhaps it's a case of "the grass is always greener", but before I became a software engineer, I felt much healthier doing a physical job.
Ideal career would be a split between office and physical work. 3 days coding, 2 days carpentry etc.
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Is that a thing? I don't think taking "performance enhancing drugs" is safe or allowed in my country, and I would definitely report coworkers to HR if I would find out they did. It's not fair to compete against someone like that.
It's absolutely a thing. Rampant in SV from what I hear. Many people get them prescribed (Adderall, Ritalin) for ADD, but it seems like 20-40% of programmers have diagnosed ADD. Others buy from friends who get it prescribed, or on the black market, and they probably don't talk about it at work. I don't think most employers would fire an employee for taking drugs to improve their performance. Regardless of safety (and…
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I'm not sure how your body parts wear out. Football players ruin their bodies through accumulated injuries, not wearing their bodies out. Do athletes wear their bodies out? I've never heard of that. How does doing plumbing/electricioning wear your body out?
How can you be so capable Walter, yet so oblivious to the fact that people who make their money with their bodies end up wearing that body out well before their life is over?
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If there's one thing that I've learned hanging out on /r/freelance, it's that most people are not cut out to be business owners.
Can you elaborate why?
A jobbing plumber just needs to text his buddies asking if they've got any work for him this week, do the job and leave with cash in hand the same day.
If you're good at plumbing but disorganised or don't have great self-discipline, the latter is a much simpler way of working.
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There is a psychology problem with skilled trades and younger generates in the US. I've known Gen Z folks who thinks it's better to work at a sandwich shop or small restaurant than skilled trades. They were raised up (through the schooling environment) to look down on trades. Even if it pays them significantly more with better benefits. Many places in the US school system they only prepare people for college. Schools…
> There is a psychology problem with skilled trades and younger generates in the US. People work preferences not being what you'd like may make the cost of motivating them to behave the way you want higher than you would like. That’s part of how market’s work—you don’t get to choose other people’s utilitt function. If you “need” for them to act in a particular way, that means you need to offer them a sufficient incen…
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I ended up paying "professionals" to install some vinyl flooring in my house. They were making like 5 of the top 10 mistakes from the YouTube video I had watched the night before. I had to correct them, which was awkward since they had been installing floors for 15 years, supposedly... YouTube changes things for sure, although I am unsure if that's the cause of fewer folks going into the trades. Demand over all seems…
I believe it. For floors, especially, the barrier to entry to the field is very low. Most of the important techniques you can pick up on the job during your first install.
If that was an unintended pun, I LOLed really hard xD
(Sorry in advance for the low quality comment)
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I don't know, when I used to work on farms, the old guys were a lot healthier than most of the people I see in tech nowadays. Although, most of that work isn't unhealthily repetitive, like jack-hammering or something, so perhaps not a great example. But, use-it-or-lose-it is a real thing.
Nah you've got it right and there are a shitload of studies that prove it: the most effective way for a human being to wreck their health is sitting on their ass all day.
Someone can be a part time office worker, part time tradesman.
This part-time aspect was one of the appealing aspects of ride-sharing apps when they first appeared. People with cars could have 9-5 jobs and before and after the job, exactly during rush hour, give a lift to a few people. Of course, they turned into the new taxi but controled by multinational corps and almost impossible to hail without a smartphone.
We are speedruning Tolkien's law of decay.
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Only on HN would this be so highly upvoted. Most electricians and plumbers are doing commercial work or residential construction. The plumbers and electricians doing house calls are a tiny portion of their business. And before YouTube university people were just as handy and could figure it out by going down to the local hardware store and talking to someone rather than ordering it on Amazon and watching a YouTube vi…
People used to have parents that taught them things abs how to deal with home maintenance.