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> Like carpentry, electrician, construction, plumbing? This may not be a popular opinion on HN, but it is much harder to learn how to be a passible electrician

> Like carpentry, electrician, construction, plumbing? This may not be a popular opinion on HN, but it is much harder to learn how to be a passible electrician or plumber than it is to learn how to be a passible programer. I worked plenty of construction jobs when I was younger. Electricians and plumbers are blue-collar jobs, but they tend to be pretty smart people.

the_only_law 6y ago
> This may not be a popular opinion on HN, but it is much harder to learn how to be a passible electrician or plumber than it is to learn how to be a passible programer. Perhaps another unpopular opinion, but you don’t even have to be a good programmer to make what most people would consider decent money. Is this the same for any trades?
- timoth3y 6y ago
  My construction experience was mostly moving heavy crap from one pile to another pile, so I can't really judge the relative skill of individual electricians or plumbers. However, an unskilled or sloppy electrician will have a pretty low life expectancy. Edit: Sorry. That might have seemed snarky. Most of these jobs have pretty strict licensing and certification requirements. An improperly wired or plumbed house is pretty dangerous, so a lot of effort is put into making sure that does not happen. I think the unskilled electricians would be filtered out earlier in their training.
- jariel 6y ago
  Well, the trades do vary a lot in quality. Especially carpentry, which is the most varied. You can work on a construction site, framing and drywalling and never pick up any real skills outside of that narrow set. Carpentry skills generally only come by doing. So find one who's older, or who came from a family of carpenters.
ryanmarsh 6y ago
True. I’ve worked with skilled trades electricians, industrial weld inspection, etc. The programmers found in your average IT department wouldn’t make it far.

the_only_law 6y ago

> This may not be a popular opinion on HN, but it is much harder to learn how to be a passible electrician or plumber than it is to learn how to be a passible programer. Perhaps another unpopular opinion, but you don’t even have to be a good programmer to make what most people would consider decent money. Is this the same for any trades?

timoth3y 6y ago
My construction experience was mostly moving heavy crap from one pile to another pile, so I can't really judge the relative skill of individual electricians or plumbers. However, an unskilled or sloppy electrician will have a pretty low life expectancy. Edit: Sorry. That might have seemed snarky. Most of these jobs have pretty strict licensing and certification requirements. An improperly wired or plumbed house is pretty dangerous, so a lot of effort is put into making sure that does not happen. I think the unskilled electricians would be filtered out earlier in their training.
jariel 6y ago
Well, the trades do vary a lot in quality. Especially carpentry, which is the most varied. You can work on a construction site, framing and drywalling and never pick up any real skills outside of that narrow set. Carpentry skills generally only come by doing. So find one who's older, or who came from a family of carpenters.

ryanmarsh 6y ago

True. I’ve worked with skilled trades electricians, industrial weld inspection, etc. The programmers found in your average IT department wouldn’t make it far.