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Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

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Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#61

Post by systems_glitch »

Freedom2 wrote: post #48
JohnFen wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Still I don't buy, "I suspect it’s easier to teach a waitress to be a writer than an intellectual to be a waiter." Yeah, I don't buy that either. I know that the best software engineering work I've done in my entire life happened when I was working as a hotel housekeeper, before I was programming professionally. It was because cleaning hotel rooms is a purely physical, and highly repetitive job. Every day at work,…

Brandon Sanderson has a decent quote from Secret Project #1, that makes me think a bit. > That is one of the great mistakes people make: assuming that someone who does menial work does not like thinking. Physical labor is great for the mind, as it leaves all kinds of time to consider the world. Other work, like accounting or scribing, demands little of the body—but siphons energy from the mind. If you wish to become…

Truly, there was nothing more mentally productive than a day on the tractor, or driving fence posts and stretching wire, or clearing.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#62

Post by [deleted] »

cafard wrote: post #2

I don't know. I never graduated to waiter, but I worked as a busboy a few times. I have much sympathy for wait staff. My recollection is that the waitresses were always decent to me. Still I don't buy, "I suspect it’s easier to teach a waitress to be a writer than an intellectual to be a waiter." One of my other low-paying jobs was as a copy editor, and I have seen how commonly schools have failed to teach PhDs to be…

[deleted]

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#64

Post by ungamedplayer »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #37
cafard wrote: post #2

I don't know. I never graduated to waiter, but I worked as a busboy a few times. I have much sympathy for wait staff. My recollection is that the waitresses were always decent to me. Still I don't buy, "I suspect it’s easier to teach a waitress to be a writer than an intellectual to be a waiter." One of my other low-paying jobs was as a copy editor, and I have seen how commonly schools have failed to teach PhDs to be…

> schools have failed to teach PhDs to be good writers I suspect you cannot teach that. I mean, you can whip the cur into following basic rules and avoiding egregious mistakes, but you cannot teach taste.

I imagine that many people have taste that appeals to some people. The problem is that many teachers mark down any taste that doesn't appeal to them, effectively ensuring that writers choose only the blandest safest optiona when writing.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#66

Post by rootsudo »

"I leaned into the idea of serving as an identity. I joined all the Facebook groups, followed #serverlife and server memes on Instagram."

I think this is one of the most toxic things in todays society, work becomes your identity and therefore you relate to it and it becomes you, or you settle to what that identity is. You are also surrounded by people in the same role, and depending on that you change to fit in with your new peers. The social media groups also re-enforce the same idea of that's all that it is.

As the author wrote in the beginning:

" I always said, soon, soon, things like this cannot last forever. I thought I’d get too tired to keep waiting tables, I thought if I waited much longer I’d lose the chance to get a ‘real’ job, in publishing or media or who knows what industry."

Many people don't get "out."

The same can be described of other groups too, can be hobby groups like cars, or other activities and such - we choose to involve ourselves with other people.

Personally, I've known many people at a distance join such groups/roles/jobs/interests and change to something worse/negative and then cut off - because it became their prime identity.

Just an interesting observation, but many times I feel people go with the easiest/path of lease resistance. Change is hard. Persistance is harder.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#67

Post by deprecative »

thih9 wrote: post #14
M3L0NM4N wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people are willing to sell their dignity for the right price, however. Me included.

How long though? I.e. when you have more money, don’t you start valuing your time and dignity more?

There's no such thing as enough money to me. I'm always one cancer diagnosis away from being destitute. I need millions and millions and millions before I'd be comfortable not prioritizing money. Nothing else matters nearly as much as money. Love? Fuck that. Love doesn't pay bills.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#68

Post by keeptrying »

A problem I've always thought about

"What app could help waitstaff move onto better paying positions?"

- They are very tired after the day so can't really learn after work.

- They usually don't have the resources to do a dev-bootcamp and dev-bootcamps don't seem to be well done.

- Copywriting is dead.

Solving for time is hard.

Re: Bad waitress: Dying on your feet

#69

Post by Invictus0 »

Freedom2 wrote: post #48
JohnFen wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Still I don't buy, "I suspect it’s easier to teach a waitress to be a writer than an intellectual to be a waiter." Yeah, I don't buy that either. I know that the best software engineering work I've done in my entire life happened when I was working as a hotel housekeeper, before I was programming professionally. It was because cleaning hotel rooms is a purely physical, and highly repetitive job. Every day at work,…

Brandon Sanderson has a decent quote from Secret Project #1, that makes me think a bit. > That is one of the great mistakes people make: assuming that someone who does menial work does not like thinking. Physical labor is great for the mind, as it leaves all kinds of time to consider the world. Other work, like accounting or scribing, demands little of the body—but siphons energy from the mind. If you wish to become…

I don't buy this either. I spend my 8 hours coding (yes, mostly coding) and still come home and study most nights. I don't feel any difference at night whether I spent the day doing yardwork or coding.
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