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As much as I love working in IT, if things continue down the path where you are expected to become a labourer in 3rd World Country (mentally) and as a consequen

As much as I love working in IT, if things continue down the path where you are expected to become a labourer in 3rd World Country (mentally) and as a consequence start suffering devastating effects such as physical illnesses, I would strongly, STRONGLY recommend my kids to not pursue IT as a career at all - better be a civil engineer or even a plumber or a lawyer or a family Doctor and live a good life with good money.

nashashmi 8y ago
Plumber = get hands dirty, sometimes real dirty, little respect, and work is hard. Civil engineer = except for the top tier branch smart people will find a difficult community fit, moderate to modest money, too many external influences towards the discipline, seemingly prime for disruption by the tech world (already happening). Lawyer and family doctor = too many hours in school and then too many hours in work (generally). Disclaimer: I'm a civil engineer, work alongside plumbing engineers, know zero actual plumbers, fiancee is doctor, looking to pursue law.
- m23khan 8y ago
  hahaha, damn, you are probably the best suited person to reply to my comment. Good luck to you and wishing you and your Fiancee the very best!
- borkt 8y ago
  I'm a municipal civil, wife is a winemaker. We do well enough that we can afford to live where we grew up and I don't see this job getting disrupted (old underground infrastructure, much of the work is project management related, im pretty adaptable to whatever technologies end up downsizing the field, etc) but it is definitely just a job to me and not even remotely a passion.
- sizzle 8y ago
  Wow a doctor looking to pursue law, very cool! Isn't law worse for work/life balance? (Not taking into account the opportunity cost of already having gotten past the grueling med school and residency stages). Or is it to go into the medical side of the legal field and combine the best of both worlds, or simply a change of heart? How do you like civil engineering? Do you see tech disrupting your profession, or the field of medicine or law for your significant other? For example, I know there is software that will make paralegal work redundant eventually.
  - nashashmi 8y ago
    Whoops! Didn't mean to say fiancee is looking to pursue law. I am. Definitely worse for the work/life balance metric. But I think it is unfair to yourself if you seek careers based on how little or how much you work. Sometimes you are just looking for something fulfilling. It is the problematic misc/admin problems surrounding the cool stuff that cause you to lose your passion. Like knowing the dismal outcome of a work beforehand, but having to do it anyway without success because someone else said so. A forgotten rule for me: Know your [unique] strengths, Find your fit, Swing hard at the pitches, and serve the community with what God gave you as uniquely yours because that is your duty. But don't forget everything else you have to do too (this causes a natural work/life balance).
  - nashashmi 8y ago
    > Do you see tech disrupting Disruption is a good word. With newer tech, you find newer capabilities, and therefore seek a newer fit in your career. Some areas of medicine are getting more impacted than others (radiology, surgery). Others are becoming better facilitated (cardiology, nephrology). But probably the most difficult cases doctors have to deal with is when a patient has multiple problems (old age, diabetes, high blood pressure, blood clot). If a doctor has 1 or 2 patients like that, all of their time gets sucked up in those cases. So the answer is tech advances in medicine is welcomed/needed and/or disruptive based on the area of study. For Civil, the field is dominated more by government clients than private clients. And government divisions for infrastructure maintenance and improvement are far too closed and opaque, too rigid for outsiders to propose tech advances, and too authoritarian for consultants to slip them in. On the private client side, building design dominates as prime allowing for better advancement by tech. But Civil Engineers are way too backwards in their minds and resist these kinds of improvements. So tech companies are taking the lead (sidewalk labs, google moonshot Flux) here. And civil engineers are unwillingly getting into formation (monkey ordered, monkey do).
Markoff 8y ago
do you think plumber or family doctor are future proof occupations?
- m23khan 8y ago
  Oh no, not at all. However, I don't think they are required to be working 996 and to generally work 'harder' due to 'competition' (in the sense related to IT and Silicon Valley).
  - jpatokal 8y ago
    I see a lot of one-man plumbing companies advertise 24/7 availability. We can bitch about IT working conditions here on HN, but at least we're not getting woken up at 3 AM to go unclog somebody's overflowing toilets.
    - flycaliguy 8y ago
      That's often because they have an apprentice they can send in the middle of the night. Then they can come by in the morning if needed and bill for everything.
- redblacktree 8y ago
  Plumber probably is. The tech and tools used may change, but I can't see it going away.
  - SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
    That's my thought as well. It's not a glamour job, but I have a hard time seeing us creating machines that have the problem solving, troubleshooting and manual dexterity of a skilled tradesman.

nashashmi 8y ago

Plumber = get hands dirty, sometimes real dirty, little respect, and work is hard. Civil engineer = except for the top tier branch smart people will find a difficult community fit, moderate to modest money, too many external influences towards the discipline, seemingly prime for disruption by the tech world (already happening). Lawyer and family doctor = too many hours in school and then too many hours in work (generally). Disclaimer: I'm a civil engineer, work alongside plumbing engineers, know zero actual plumbers, fiancee is doctor, looking to pursue law.

m23khan 8y ago
hahaha, damn, you are probably the best suited person to reply to my comment. Good luck to you and wishing you and your Fiancee the very best!
borkt 8y ago
I'm a municipal civil, wife is a winemaker. We do well enough that we can afford to live where we grew up and I don't see this job getting disrupted (old underground infrastructure, much of the work is project management related, im pretty adaptable to whatever technologies end up downsizing the field, etc) but it is definitely just a job to me and not even remotely a passion.
sizzle 8y ago
Wow a doctor looking to pursue law, very cool! Isn't law worse for work/life balance? (Not taking into account the opportunity cost of already having gotten past the grueling med school and residency stages). Or is it to go into the medical side of the legal field and combine the best of both worlds, or simply a change of heart? How do you like civil engineering? Do you see tech disrupting your profession, or the field of medicine or law for your significant other? For example, I know there is software that will make paralegal work redundant eventually.
- nashashmi 8y ago
  Whoops! Didn't mean to say fiancee is looking to pursue law. I am. Definitely worse for the work/life balance metric. But I think it is unfair to yourself if you seek careers based on how little or how much you work. Sometimes you are just looking for something fulfilling. It is the problematic misc/admin problems surrounding the cool stuff that cause you to lose your passion. Like knowing the dismal outcome of a work beforehand, but having to do it anyway without success because someone else said so. A forgotten rule for me: Know your [unique] strengths, Find your fit, Swing hard at the pitches, and serve the community with what God gave you as uniquely yours because that is your duty. But don't forget everything else you have to do too (this causes a natural work/life balance).
- nashashmi 8y ago
  > Do you see tech disrupting Disruption is a good word. With newer tech, you find newer capabilities, and therefore seek a newer fit in your career. Some areas of medicine are getting more impacted than others (radiology, surgery). Others are becoming better facilitated (cardiology, nephrology). But probably the most difficult cases doctors have to deal with is when a patient has multiple problems (old age, diabetes, high blood pressure, blood clot). If a doctor has 1 or 2 patients like that, all of their time gets sucked up in those cases. So the answer is tech advances in medicine is welcomed/needed and/or disruptive based on the area of study. For Civil, the field is dominated more by government clients than private clients. And government divisions for infrastructure maintenance and improvement are far too closed and opaque, too rigid for outsiders to propose tech advances, and too authoritarian for consultants to slip them in. On the private client side, building design dominates as prime allowing for better advancement by tech. But Civil Engineers are way too backwards in their minds and resist these kinds of improvements. So tech companies are taking the lead (sidewalk labs, google moonshot Flux) here. And civil engineers are unwillingly getting into formation (monkey ordered, monkey do).

Markoff 8y ago

do you think plumber or family doctor are future proof occupations?

m23khan 8y ago
Oh no, not at all. However, I don't think they are required to be working 996 and to generally work 'harder' due to 'competition' (in the sense related to IT and Silicon Valley).
- jpatokal 8y ago
  I see a lot of one-man plumbing companies advertise 24/7 availability. We can bitch about IT working conditions here on HN, but at least we're not getting woken up at 3 AM to go unclog somebody's overflowing toilets.
  - flycaliguy 8y ago
    That's often because they have an apprentice they can send in the middle of the night. Then they can come by in the morning if needed and bill for everything.
redblacktree 8y ago
Plumber probably is. The tech and tools used may change, but I can't see it going away.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
  That's my thought as well. It's not a glamour job, but I have a hard time seeing us creating machines that have the problem solving, troubleshooting and manual dexterity of a skilled tradesman.