4 ms·

The point everyone is making is this is not an IT forum. It’s tech (which includes machinery) and business. You can avoid IT entirely and still work a tech job.

by pigsty 4y ago

The point everyone is making is this is not an IT forum. It’s tech (which includes machinery) and business. You can avoid IT entirely and still work a tech job. I’d dare say the vast majority of tech jobs are in no way similar to IT.

4ggr0 4y ago
My point is that the commenter mentioned that they're a brush-cutter, while they have comments on their profile talking about Free-/NetBSD, Perl etc. This made me curious about this persons background. These details just created a very interesting image in my head - brush cutter by day, Free-/NetBSD hacker during the night. If they don't want to go into it, fine, just figured I might as well ask. Fine?
- marttt 4y ago
  Brush cutter here -- not at all insulted by the question! I'm actually a trained journalist, but at one point I needed better work-life balance. Agreed to help out my (late) dad's classmate who is a forester. Brush cutting and tree planting seem to somehow fit my personality (excellent for loners who like physical effort in nasty weather, lol), so I stayed. As for BSD, Perl, Tiny Core Linux, Plan 9, etc -- I suppose I have a long-time intellectual interest in various "fringe" IT topics, computers as a tool for thinking, and repurposing old computers and ultra-minimal OSes in a meaningful way. I'm a horrible coder, but I love programming languages, lol. (I would have probably made a decent linguist, syntax or spoken language researcher, but oh well.) Obviously, HN is an excellent place for folks like me -- people who are (always?) slightly lost in life. Unable to make big bucks (this is fine!), but still intellectually curious. It really is a perfect online environment, and IMO a remarkably good embodiment of free speech and democracy. Thanks HN, and thanks dang, for the excellent moderation!
  - 4ggr0 4y ago
    > not at all insulted by the question! I'm relieved about that! Thanks for telling your story, glad that I asked :) And good to hear that you sound like you found your way.

by pigsty 4y ago

4ggr0 4y ago

My point is that the commenter mentioned that they're a brush-cutter, while they have comments on their profile talking about Free-/NetBSD, Perl etc. This made me curious about this persons background. These details just created a very interesting image in my head - brush cutter by day, Free-/NetBSD hacker during the night. If they don't want to go into it, fine, just figured I might as well ask. Fine?

marttt 4y ago
Brush cutter here -- not at all insulted by the question! I'm actually a trained journalist, but at one point I needed better work-life balance. Agreed to help out my (late) dad's classmate who is a forester. Brush cutting and tree planting seem to somehow fit my personality (excellent for loners who like physical effort in nasty weather, lol), so I stayed. As for BSD, Perl, Tiny Core Linux, Plan 9, etc -- I suppose I have a long-time intellectual interest in various "fringe" IT topics, computers as a tool for thinking, and repurposing old computers and ultra-minimal OSes in a meaningful way. I'm a horrible coder, but I love programming languages, lol. (I would have probably made a decent linguist, syntax or spoken language researcher, but oh well.) Obviously, HN is an excellent place for folks like me -- people who are (always?) slightly lost in life. Unable to make big bucks (this is fine!), but still intellectually curious. It really is a perfect online environment, and IMO a remarkably good embodiment of free speech and democracy. Thanks HN, and thanks dang, for the excellent moderation!
- 4ggr0 4y ago
  > not at all insulted by the question! I'm relieved about that! Thanks for telling your story, glad that I asked :) And good to hear that you sound like you found your way.