4 ms·

I'm reminded of this line: "More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constric

I'm reminded of this line: "More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary" [0]. A year and a half ago I finally made my way back to hands-on hardware development after a few years in data science. It's very satisfying to have a job where there's some physical labor involved and I recognize how lucky I am to be in such a job in a tech company. [0] https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/ https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-tr...

combatentropy 7y ago
Now that is weird. Yesterday I thought the same thing, that the durable jobs are those that a child can understand: grocer, teacher, police officer, firefighter, plumber, and so on. And I was thinking specifically about Richard Scarry books.
- mattrp 7y ago
  Me too! Seriously just yesterday I was thinking it would be valuable to study the NEC electrical code with my kids. I may be wrong but seems like electricians fall into the same category. As a side note: I have a house going through final trade inspections now and an issue came up where I literally turned to stack exchange to educate myself on the issue prior to going back to my electrician to insist he back off from his stance that he’s right and the inspectors wrong (not that this is a sustainable position in the first place).. but it was interesting how the stack exchange culture has gone beyond developers.
  - Animats 7y ago
    The Illustrated Guide to the NEC is useful, although the current version is overpriced. Because It's A Textbook.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  > the durable jobs are those that a child can understand: grocer I don’t know how many grocers you have left in your village, but where I live they’ve basically gone extinct and those that are left look to be pretty poor and precarious, made irrelevant decades ago by supermarkets.
Nasrudith 7y ago
"More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary" I personally find that line deeply disturbing. It is utterly backwards. It starts with the tail's wagging driving the dog and only gets more wrong from there as a view of the world. The whole point of the books was to present a small picture of the world of adults to small children that they could understand and learn. Not as the basis of the world as it is. That is taking the map as the territory writ large. The author is assuming that things they understand are better without any reference to the world. It references. That could be funny in itself in a "deliberately apply the causation backwards sense". That people so readily believe such utter irrationality because it flatters their egos and would support tearing down what actually works is the frightening part. We have seen it before and only ends in tears. It is another example of the frankly goddamned stupid idea that any system they cannot understand without any learning is automatically inferior. Reality really doesn't work that way.

combatentropy 7y ago

Now that is weird. Yesterday I thought the same thing, that the durable jobs are those that a child can understand: grocer, teacher, police officer, firefighter, plumber, and so on. And I was thinking specifically about Richard Scarry books.

mattrp 7y ago
Me too! Seriously just yesterday I was thinking it would be valuable to study the NEC electrical code with my kids. I may be wrong but seems like electricians fall into the same category. As a side note: I have a house going through final trade inspections now and an issue came up where I literally turned to stack exchange to educate myself on the issue prior to going back to my electrician to insist he back off from his stance that he’s right and the inspectors wrong (not that this is a sustainable position in the first place).. but it was interesting how the stack exchange culture has gone beyond developers.
- Animats 7y ago
  The Illustrated Guide to the NEC is useful, although the current version is overpriced. Because It's A Textbook.
chrisseaton 7y ago
> the durable jobs are those that a child can understand: grocer I don’t know how many grocers you have left in your village, but where I live they’ve basically gone extinct and those that are left look to be pretty poor and precarious, made irrelevant decades ago by supermarkets.

Nasrudith 7y ago

"More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary" I personally find that line deeply disturbing. It is utterly backwards. It starts with the tail's wagging driving the dog and only gets more wrong from there as a view of the world. The whole point of the books was to present a small picture of the world of adults to small children that they could understand and learn. Not as the basis of the world as it is. That is taking the map as the territory writ large. The author is assuming that things they understand are better without any reference to the world. It references. That could be funny in itself in a "deliberately apply the causation backwards sense". That people so readily believe such utter irrationality because it flatters their egos and would support tearing down what actually works is the frightening part. We have seen it before and only ends in tears. It is another example of the frankly goddamned stupid idea that any system they cannot understand without any learning is automatically inferior. Reality really doesn't work that way.