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I've met people in the trades that are just as smart, or smarter than most white collar folk, including software engineers. A lot of these people may have dropp

I've met people in the trades that are just as smart, or smarter than most white collar folk, including software engineers. A lot of these people may have dropped out of high school or college, but street smarts are real Some of the successful ones that own their own businesses are able to make a lot of money (a consistent >500k/year). The downsides are that those businesses are difficult to scale since they are service oriented, and they depend on good physical health. Moreover, consistent quality is mostly the responsibility of the owners, and again, that can't always scale far either. You also get out what you put in, in most cases it seems like the pay is a linear function of productivity. It's definitely not easy or normal to make that much, but it's doable as a tradesman

et-al 8y ago
Agree with everything you've mentioned. One thing I'll add about tradesmen is they're some of the wittiest people to hang out with. Makes sense considering half the time it's a bunch of folks riffing on each other on the job.
- noir_lord 8y ago
  Aye, You reminer me of a funny story. Before I was a programmer I was an industrial electrician and had worked on sites, after I was a programmer we where down on a site installing some equipment and a plumber walked past and said “your the guys who came 200 miles to turn on a switch right?” And I instantly replied “nah, we just heard there was a scouser doing some work so we had to come look!” the techie I was with looked like he was gonna shit himself but the other guys around fell about laughing. The thing with work sites is you can’t take any shit but you won’t find funnier people either.
  - Baeocystin 8y ago
    Sometimes I really do miss my old welding job in the shipyards, and the fun of the people I was working with is a big part of it. (It was also the most meritocratic job I've ever had- your ability, or lack thereof, was on display for everyone to see. And working on teams where everyone is competent is a joy, virtually regardless of actual task.)

et-al 8y ago

Agree with everything you've mentioned. One thing I'll add about tradesmen is they're some of the wittiest people to hang out with. Makes sense considering half the time it's a bunch of folks riffing on each other on the job.

noir_lord 8y ago
Aye, You reminer me of a funny story. Before I was a programmer I was an industrial electrician and had worked on sites, after I was a programmer we where down on a site installing some equipment and a plumber walked past and said “your the guys who came 200 miles to turn on a switch right?” And I instantly replied “nah, we just heard there was a scouser doing some work so we had to come look!” the techie I was with looked like he was gonna shit himself but the other guys around fell about laughing. The thing with work sites is you can’t take any shit but you won’t find funnier people either.
- Baeocystin 8y ago
  Sometimes I really do miss my old welding job in the shipyards, and the fun of the people I was working with is a big part of it. (It was also the most meritocratic job I've ever had- your ability, or lack thereof, was on display for everyone to see. And working on teams where everyone is competent is a joy, virtually regardless of actual task.)