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Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas

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Re: Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas

#31

Post by jimbokun »

albertcardona wrote: post #18
ojbyrne wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this article to be interesting in light of your comment. It's about 20-somethings scrimping, working crappy jobs, lots of sacrifices, just so they can live in NYC: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/nyregion/25scrimp.html I'm sure that it's a quality job, but most people are more interested in a quality career, and they generally perceive that not too many quality careers happen in rural Kansas. Not that aren't…

I am under the impression that people around me have taken a "Start Trek" life for granted: * Food magically appears in stores * Water magically flows from taps * Trash magically disappears That could explain why reality-checking jobs like farmer are off the radar. Why, aren't there robots or something doing such things ?

"Why, aren't there robots or something doing such things?"

I'm actually kind of curious about what is preventing this equipment from actually becoming a robot:

'“I can teach them easily,” he says. “My equipment is goof proof, it has to be.” By that, he means that an employee need not even know how to drive straight, the tractor is guided by a sophisticated guidance sytem hooked into three satellites. “If I overlap six inches on fertilizer or seeding,” he says, “it wastes nearly $10,000.”'

What's the need for a human being in the machine at all? What could he or she do in there but screw things up?

Re: Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas

#32

Post by zach »

dcurtis wrote: post #24
zach wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me be gentle about this. I think Craig is primarily looking for someone with the skills to practice dedicated work. Homelessness develops one's skills in different areas. I don't think working long hours in ag country would be a good match for big-city homeless folks.

You mean to say that homeless are lazy and have no work ethic? That's true of most homeless, I think. But a small minority of them probably are good physical laborers who just lack the ability to find good jobs. I wonder how one could weed these out of the general homeless population.

I'm only speaking about the experience, not the people themselves. If you want to learn how to live workfree (I think that may actually be a thing) in the US, being homeless on the streets of Santa Monica would teach you a lot. But if I was Craig, I'd be looking for the guys who work at a Hormel plant in Kentucky instead.

Re: Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas

#33

Post by menloparkbum »

jimbokun wrote: post #31
albertcardona wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am under the impression that people around me have taken a "Start Trek" life for granted: * Food magically appears in stores * Water magically flows from taps * Trash magically disappears That could explain why reality-checking jobs like farmer are off the radar. Why, aren't there robots or something doing such things ?

"Why, aren't there robots or something doing such things?" I'm actually kind of curious about what is preventing this equipment from actually becoming a robot: '“I can teach them easily,” he says. “My equipment is goof proof, it has to be.” By that, he means that an employee need not even know how to drive straight, the tractor is guided by a sophisticated guidance sytem hooked into three satellites. “If I overlap si…

They need humans driving the tractor for the same reasons we aren't all commuting to work in robot cars and buses.

Re: Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas

#34

Post by Tichy »

jrockway wrote: post #21
Tichy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"He is working himself to the bone." Why is he doing that?

Why do people do anything? This isn't uncommon, though; plenty of people here work themselves to the bone on their software projects. When you own your own business, you get ahead by working.

It makes him sound like some kind of hero, though. Maybe he is, but in general, I think ruining one's health through working too much is not a good idea.

Re: Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas

#35

Post by Tichy »

menloparkbum wrote: post #33
jimbokun wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why, aren't there robots or something doing such things?" I'm actually kind of curious about what is preventing this equipment from actually becoming a robot: '“I can teach them easily,” he says. “My equipment is goof proof, it has to be.” By that, he means that an employee need not even know how to drive straight, the tractor is guided by a sophisticated guidance sytem hooked into three satellites. “If I overlap si…

They need humans driving the tractor for the same reasons we aren't all commuting to work in robot cars and buses.

I thought there are robot harvesters guided by GPS already?

Re: Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas

#36

Post by davidw »

dcurtis wrote: post #23
ComputerGuru wrote: post #22

I don't get why most everyone on HN assumes all hackers are I know plenty of middle-aged experts in the computer industries with wives and kids who love it out "in the country" and wouldn't trade it for anything else. While there's a lot to be said for the bling and bang of living in somewhere like NYC, Seattle, SF, Chicago (my hometown! :D), or the valley; there's a whole 'nother side to the coin that involves a qui…

The majority of "the valley" is suburban and there is absolutely no glamour to living in San Jose. An hour from Palo Alto, and you're in Gilroy, a rural community in the middle of nowhere. In a lot of ways Silicon Valley is rural/very suburban and far removed from big city life.

I think 'rural' is going a bit far, but it would be fair to characterize the valley as "All the drawbacks of a big city with non of the benefits".

Re: Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas

#37

Post by danohuiginn »

edw519 wrote: post #30

Never said how many 18 to 20 hour days. Depending on this answer, this could be an excellent setup for a software startup. Work double shifts during planting and harvesting, single shift and part time the rest of the year. Live for free, write software the rest of the time. Bank everything. All you'd need is broadband and some deposit slips. By the time your software was done, you could be your own angel.

nods

My impression is that this is a fairly common model for communes - farm work during the some seasons, spend the rest of the year working for cash or on some big project.

If you strip out the cultural differences, communes and start-ups have a lot in common. I don't see why a start-up/farm couldn't work in this way, just so long as you don't try to launch a product in September.

Re: Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas

#39

Post by rms »

davidw wrote: post #36
dcurtis wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of "the valley" is suburban and there is absolutely no glamour to living in San Jose. An hour from Palo Alto, and you're in Gilroy, a rural community in the middle of nowhere. In a lot of ways Silicon Valley is rural/very suburban and far removed from big city life.

I think 'rural' is going a bit far, but it would be fair to characterize the valley as "All the drawbacks of a big city with non of the benefits".

+ venture capitalists and SF

Re: Would You Want This Job? Hard work, middle of Kansas

#40

Post by kingkongrevenge »

mdakin wrote: post #20

If he really is advertising well, interviewing people and not getting results the offer is simply too low. There must be some factor that we can't see from this blog post that is visible to the people he's interviewed that makes this job NOT worth the money he's offering.

He's probably full of shit. These employers make deliberately ridiculous recruiting efforts so they can prove to the INS there are no domestic candidates and they need worker visas. They post the ads in tiny low circulation classified sections and then come up with specious disqualifications for any domestic applicants.

This smells just like a case last year where a PR piece pushing liberal immigration law backfired. A guy who owned a lawn service company did his bit for the cause blathering on about how he couldn't get ANYONE domestic to work for him for something like $10/hour. He needed illegals. Well it turned out, he wasn't advertising anywhere and was just directly recruiting illegals. When this piece got even a little circulation native born Americans were lined up around the block asking him for work.

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