3 ms·
I find myself thinking this, from time to time. It's easy to look at a mixed-martial arts fighter, or coal miner, or sweat-shop textile factory worker, or a dr
by jwiley 11y ago
I find myself thinking this, from time to time. It's easy to look at a mixed-martial arts fighter, or coal miner, or sweat-shop textile factory worker, or a drug dealer and say: "why not do something less dangerous?"
But the reality is that for many people a safe career is not an easy or even realistic choice. If your options are to live in a ramshackle apartment, never own a car, not have enough money to get married, send your kids to school, bury your family members, or retire, it's harder to turn down a more lucrative and more dangerous career.
I can't pretend to know the motivations of all of the workers, but I am sure that at least some of them made the decision to sacrifice personal health and safety for their future, and their families future, which I think is a reasonable definition of heroism.
- ryanmarsh 11y agoIf you don't have much of an education, danger often pays.
- ghaff 11y agoI'm not sure to what degree I'd put oil rig worker (or even oil firefighter) in the same category as those. A couple of them of pretty much winner take all jobs and a couple are probably "don't have much of a choice" jobs if you live in certain locations. Oil jobs tend to be pretty well-paying blue collar in return for long hours/physically demanding work, week+ on/off schedules, and some level of increased risk (which seems to be concentrated in new workers). I don't really disagree with your basic point though. I actually worked as an engineer for an offshore drilling company out of school. And, yes, I'm sure there were dangers that the average SV programmer doesn't have but it was good job, paid well for the time, and I only had one relatively minor job-related injury.