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My friend dropped out of (traditional) college due to low grades and became a welder. Not only does he make an upper middle class salary, he said the best part

My friend dropped out of (traditional) college due to low grades and became a welder. Not only does he make an upper middle class salary, he said the best part is getting to build stuff and have it be used for important things.

0x445442 8y ago
Yeah. Last summer I went to the Empire State Building in New York city and two things struck me. First was the quality of the work and second was the recognition paid to those responsible for that quality. On the observation floor they have these plaques that display lists of recognized tradesmen who built the damn thing. I was almost moved to tears looking at those lists and realizing what these people had done in a years time. And if you happen to be in the lineage of those builders... Imagine being able to take your children to that place, point at those lists and say; look there, your great grand father helped make this building.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  “On the observation floor they have these plaques that display lists of recognized tradesmen who built the damn thing. ” I don’t think this would happen anymore. Workers don’t get much respect these days. They are kept anonymous. The first Macs had the names of the developers somewhere. No way this would fly these days.
  - whatshisface 8y ago
    Most computer games have credits.
    - bobwaycott 8y ago
      That seems to be an expected thing in entertainment products. Getting in the credits is very important to one's career and place in the field(s) involved.
  - Crinus 8y ago
    Not just the Macs themselves, but also the software in old Macs often had the names of its programmer(s) on the About box as opposed to a generic company name. I think this was sort of part of the Macintosh culture at the time since the software that came with the OS itself had the programmers' names instead of Apple too. Today you only see that only on open source software... and Adobe (for some reason :-P). Although in both cases it is usually tacked under an "Authors" or "Credits" button (mainly because the credits is usually a laundry list with tons of names).
    - maxxxxx 8y ago
      There are all these stories about Hertzfeld, Atkinson and others from the early Mac days. I have never heard similar stuff about iPhone development. Who are the heroes of iOS?
      - bobwaycott 8y ago
        Steve Jobs. I really don't mean for that to sound in any way snarky or whatever. I'm also not trying to diminish the role Jobs played as a visionary, driving the company to create the right product. Not a Jobs cultist, and I'm also not wishing to denigrate him. It's just that, in light of the point being made, I think it really illustrates that point so well that there are only two names that I feel are championed as the heroes of the iPhone & iOS—Jobs and Ive. Sure, there are other execs who show up in keynotes/events, and they get some praise for their roles/departments ... and I think that really drives the point home. People doing the work aren't highlighted and recognized. It's the execs who get the praise, accolades, awards, etc. Maybe there are individual contributor names on patents or something, but nobody really seems to know who they are.
        omarchowdhury 8y ago
        It comes down to a cognitive trade off. No one can or wants to remember or contemplate the tens, hundreds or thousands of people whose efforts went into completing something. It's just easier, calorically speaking, to give the attention to a few.
      - 8y ago
  - snerbles 8y ago
    Some (not sure if all) Microsoft Sidewinder joysticks had cast signatures of the engineering team: https://imgur.com/GBi5cjR https://imgur.com/GBi5cjR https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/4g678s/found_on_the_circuit_board_of_a_guitar_pedal/d2f4xg3/ https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/4g678s/found_on_the_c...
  - seppin 8y ago
    The work itself is poor quality, even in the high budget projects. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-yorks-super-mall-hudson-yards-opens-this-weekend-and-here-are-the-reviews-so-far-2019-03-15 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-yorks-super-mall-hudso...
    - maxxxxx 8y ago
      "Poor quality" would probably apply to most tech projects too :-). Most of the stuff we produce is short term and disposable.

0x445442 8y ago

Yeah. Last summer I went to the Empire State Building in New York city and two things struck me. First was the quality of the work and second was the recognition paid to those responsible for that quality. On the observation floor they have these plaques that display lists of recognized tradesmen who built the damn thing. I was almost moved to tears looking at those lists and realizing what these people had done in a years time. And if you happen to be in the lineage of those builders... Imagine being able to take your children to that place, point at those lists and say; look there, your great grand father helped make this building.

maxxxxx 8y ago
“On the observation floor they have these plaques that display lists of recognized tradesmen who built the damn thing. ” I don’t think this would happen anymore. Workers don’t get much respect these days. They are kept anonymous. The first Macs had the names of the developers somewhere. No way this would fly these days.
- whatshisface 8y ago
  Most computer games have credits.
  - bobwaycott 8y ago
    That seems to be an expected thing in entertainment products. Getting in the credits is very important to one's career and place in the field(s) involved.
- Crinus 8y ago
  Not just the Macs themselves, but also the software in old Macs often had the names of its programmer(s) on the About box as opposed to a generic company name. I think this was sort of part of the Macintosh culture at the time since the software that came with the OS itself had the programmers' names instead of Apple too. Today you only see that only on open source software... and Adobe (for some reason :-P). Although in both cases it is usually tacked under an "Authors" or "Credits" button (mainly because the credits is usually a laundry list with tons of names).
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    There are all these stories about Hertzfeld, Atkinson and others from the early Mac days. I have never heard similar stuff about iPhone development. Who are the heroes of iOS?
    - bobwaycott 8y ago
      Steve Jobs. I really don't mean for that to sound in any way snarky or whatever. I'm also not trying to diminish the role Jobs played as a visionary, driving the company to create the right product. Not a Jobs cultist, and I'm also not wishing to denigrate him. It's just that, in light of the point being made, I think it really illustrates that point so well that there are only two names that I feel are championed as the heroes of the iPhone & iOS—Jobs and Ive. Sure, there are other execs who show up in keynotes/events, and they get some praise for their roles/departments ... and I think that really drives the point home. People doing the work aren't highlighted and recognized. It's the execs who get the praise, accolades, awards, etc. Maybe there are individual contributor names on patents or something, but nobody really seems to know who they are.
      - omarchowdhury 8y ago
        It comes down to a cognitive trade off. No one can or wants to remember or contemplate the tens, hundreds or thousands of people whose efforts went into completing something. It's just easier, calorically speaking, to give the attention to a few.
    - 8y ago
- snerbles 8y ago
  Some (not sure if all) Microsoft Sidewinder joysticks had cast signatures of the engineering team: https://imgur.com/GBi5cjR https://imgur.com/GBi5cjR https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/4g678s/found_on_the_circuit_board_of_a_guitar_pedal/d2f4xg3/ https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/4g678s/found_on_the_c...
- seppin 8y ago
  The work itself is poor quality, even in the high budget projects. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-yorks-super-mall-hudson-yards-opens-this-weekend-and-here-are-the-reviews-so-far-2019-03-15 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-yorks-super-mall-hudso...
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    "Poor quality" would probably apply to most tech projects too :-). Most of the stuff we produce is short term and disposable.