Why programmers like cooking: You peel the carrot, you chop the carrot, you put the carrot in the stew. You don’t suddenly find out that your peeler is several versions behind and they dropped support for carrots in 4.3
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/agv5ol/why...
In the last two years I've become a semi-pro photographer. I guess I am also an "activist" now but approach it as personal change [1] instead of interpersonal conflict.
[1] a kind of global "daoism" that embraces all kinds of human development
I just hate the direction the software industry has gone (and is going), and once I buy a house and get some savings I want to get out.
BUT ... to be 100% honest there's nothing I am really any good at other than tech. I guess I could try my hand at teaching. Would that be a good enough loop hole? I could maybe teach Econ 101 at a junior college probably. It'd be a huge pay cut but it'd be better than being jobless.
When I was 45, I did briefly consider making the switch
Back in college('97) a guy offered me a job as an elevator repair tech. I almost dropped out since the money was better than what I'd make as an engineer($50/hr plus OT). My first engineering job, doing embedded SW and some EE work for a large consumer electronics company was $37.5k/yr.
I mean this sincerely, this is a geniuinely impressive level of self-awareness. If everybody was better at recognizing things like this, I think the world would be a much better place. Cheers
I could and I do daytrade options, which however is more tech than tech itself, whether by hand or by a bot.
I would however like to be a consulting speaker, but the research for it can't really be done without a steady and heavy dose of tech.
Human sexuality is the one thing in this world that's more interesting to me than computers, and while I'm grateful for my stable job and career that allow me to explore it as a hobby, I'm infinitely curious about what that other life would have looked like.
If I had to pivot in 2025, I’d probably go for psychology. I’m interested in that, I enjoy the idea of more directly helping people and have myself been tremendously helped by psychologists the past years.
If I didn't have to work in order to live I'd probably spend more time sailing, playing music, and being with my family.
But I'd still be programming. The kind of programming I'd do would be focused on my interests rather than the interests of businesses and shareholders that employ me though.
I absolutely knew even when I left school ("school" school) that none of these would pay, so I assume your question has an implicit "if money was no concern". Because money/job was the reason I picked engineering and CS in college. While I did quite well (academically and professionally), I never loved it. Maybe I liked it here and there. Then I knew this would happen; that's the reason I was at least prudent enough to never do that CS MS (with multiple options for full scholarships in Europe around a decade ago). But not prudent enough to explore masters in many of the non-STEM fields that were there for the taking pretty much. Some of those might have paired well with this STEM bachelors in some way or the other.
Of particular interest was some interesting types of feedback that came from the Tesla coils. Basically we modulated the frequency we drove the coils to produce sound, but the coils would interfere with one another because that’s how electromagnetism works. We had to tune them to different resonant frequencies to play sound. But the interference itself could sound unique and eerie, sometimes like an old-timey radio. It’s similar in principle to a theremin but a very different sound.
Or I could just get a soul sucking job and do this in early retirement. Shrug.
Material costs were a little ridiculous, but since I'm only building for myself that wasn't a huge issue :-)
I've considered it a lot when I went through a big burnout, perhaps I should've just thrown away the 20+ years of career in tech at that moment to start as a journeyman since now it just became much harder to let go off the comforts this career brings me...
After that two weeks I even did some market research to see if there was any way to make a remotely comparable living off of it (unfortunately there wasn't, at least until the kids are out of the house and expenses go way down). I also realized that my style was not well aligned with popular styles at the time (this was 2019), and that shipping costs basically meant I could only sell to local area (and even then delivery cost/time would require adding too much margin).
Someday hopefully life will be more compatible with our dream :-)
But more generally, I would like to commit my time to making the built world more beautiful and sustainable. I despise the obsolescent plastic slop that we all are forced to use, wear, live in, and just see and be around all the time. I find it such a degradation in our society -- the shift in taste and values away from an appreciation of well-made, durable, and well-designed physical objects.
What type of wood would you recommend? Do you have any favorite designs you would recommend using as a starting point?
It's typically not recommended to self-design, the physics gets technical and there are a lot of free working plans out there including by famous naval architects.
Most people start out with simpler designs using plywood and fiberglass but, due to my aforementioned disdain for a lot of modern approaches, I personally went with a traditional oak frame, cedar plank, copper rivet construction. It is very time consuming but I'm enjoying the journey. I chose a flat-bottomed sail boat design (dory) to make it a little easier on myself.
There are endless variations on the concept of a "wooden vessel that can be propelled through water" idea so it really depends on your interests and tastes. It's a "form follows function" situation too, so you also need to consider your use case -- engine, oar, sail; ocean, river, lake; etc.
If it were just for my own care-free leisure and benefit, I would probably go to school again and try some other academic path in math, physics or history. Or rekindle my CS study and do a phd - so many different interesting topics.
In the real world, as a parent with a huge mortgage? Pretty much anything. Janitorial work, insurance agent, landscaping, whatever.
For the former, a repair/handyman. Hanging shelves, assembling ikea furniture, etc.
The latter is harder to answer, but probably something within the legal profession.
I also could end up being happy in condensed matter physics, astrophysics, robotics, materials science, nano tech, optics, or RF. Some combination of engineering and science.
I love teaching and building things to help people. So there are a bunch of areas that would fit the bill here. I gravitate towards any tech that feels like magic.
When I’m retired I plan to get a part-time job as an usher at a theater, arena, concert hall, or stadium.
Another good option is to get a really low-stress job at a tropical resort. I can imagine running a little stand that rents out umbrellas and chairs on a beach. Or maybe walking around the beach selling ice cream out of a cart.
My wife is an SLP at a hospital and she loves it. I couldn't handle the more medical parts, but I can see crossover there with assessment and problem-solving. She geeks out on it.
Both of us are definitely interested in work that benefits lives. (For me, a lot of that is driven by my desire to repent for working in online advertising for so many years.) If that's something that matters to you, and it sounds like it is, I definitely recommend pushing for that. But think outside the box, too--there are a lot of places in tech that benefit people and provide interaction.
Finally, watch out for the student loan-to-income ratio for things like SLP. Make sure you're balancing that.
I know it is an highly physical demanding and also very risky job. Now that a second child arives, obviously, life changing again, i just cant do it, i need to feed two kinds soon and these kind of jobs are not well payed.
So ill stick to doing my own firewood once a year, a couple of days outside in the woods and keep dreaming about it.
Live goes by too fast.
lordkrandel•1h ago