5 ms·

It's A Dirty Job, And I Love It

62 points by IsaacSchlueter 18y ago

Tichy 18y ago
Hm, the scary thing is, I think if my true passion was picking up road kill, I would probably never find out. It would never have occured to me to try that profession. So I am doomed :-(
- mlLK 18y ago
  I picked up roadkill for two summers in a row while working for the DPW, but we never called it roadkill, we denoted the dearly departed as 'buddies'. It was sorta funny since you may wonder, "Where do all them buddies go after you get done pickin em all up?" They all went in this 12ft hole known as the buddy pit.
  - dbooher 18y ago
    "buddy pit", haha, Glorious =) i'll take spontaneous ironic humour like that over the artificial corporate "team building/inspirational" talk any day of the (work)week.
swombat 18y ago
Why not follow both your passions AND the opportunities around you? Why does it have to be an either/or thing? If you're passionate about something, chances are you'll spot opportunities to do it. "Follow your opportunities" is good advice, but this article fails to realise that some (most?) of us won't feel that we've fulfilled our purpose in life (irrespective of religious considerations - I'm talking about that sense of self-fulfillment you get when you're doing something you think is worthwhile) if we spend it castrating lamb with our teeth. So follow your passion AND your opportunities. Don't settle for only one.
- HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
  There's nothing wrong with your advice. The problem is that too many people think they must find their passion in their work and that's a tall order to fill. Far easier to work to pay the bills and indulge your passions after that's done.
  - swombat 18y ago
    I disagree with that. I enjoy what I'm doing, I'm passionate about it, and having done it the other way as well, I wouldn't change back. It's great to wake up in the morning and think "Yes! I'm going to spend all day working!" without a trace of sarcasm. Some people may be able to do a job that they hate, but it saps my soul.
    - dbooher 18y ago
      I'm glad you enjoy your job. I share your sentiments as well, but I think what the parent was talking about, is that some kids are thrown "Follow your dreams" so much that they are paralyzed by it. You and I are lucky to have found our passion now, but what were you doing before you found your passion? Some kids don't know their passion yet, and hence can't stand to work any job; doing anything, even sticking with a "random" faculty seems betrayal to their true calling. I've seen so many people who just wont do anything with their lives while they're just "waiting" for that feeling to kick in. They go to a job and come home navel gazing, thinking "is this it? is this it?" and when no magical sparks happen in the first week, they decide this isn't for them and is beneath them, and quit or just don't show up. Same thing in relationships: we're fed 'if you find the right person it'll be perfect bliss' so often that we're not willing to just do the dirty work, and find happiness in it. In short, we are a generation that doesn't know how to "settle". "Settling" and "Contentment" are shameful words in our society.
      - swombat 18y ago
        I see what you're saying, and I agree. That's why I say you should follow both passions and opportunities. Certainly if all the good opportunities aren't stuff that you're that passionate about, you should follow the opportunities - while looking out for more appropriate opportunities. I did, however, get the impression, from the article, that it implied you should forget about passion and just do what everyone else doesn't want to do. That to me is just as stupid as what you're describing (following passions only).
wallflower 18y ago
Hmmm. Some of the jobs are extreme examples but a smart kid I knew since he was a toddler - when he graduated from high school in his valedictory address said, "Work doesn't necessarily make you happy. but it may give you to means to do the stuff that makes you happy." There is a point that some of the most profitable jobs are those that people don't like to do and/or niches.
peregrine 18y ago
Mike Rowe is a great guy, and this was a great article. This is why I come to hacker news.
- swilliams 18y ago
  "What does surprise me is the fact that everybody I've met on this gig--with the possible exception of the lamb--seems to be having a ball." I love Mike Rowe's sense of humor. Even if I did scream in revulsion when I read the first paragraph.
  - tallanvor 18y ago
    Seeing him actually do it was even worse than reading about it!
    - rationalbeaver 18y ago
      When I read that bit, all I could think was "Man, there has got to be a better way to do that". Perhaps I'll be inventing a lamb castrator device this weekend...
      - kragen 18y ago
        I hear there's this material called "flint" that works well for that kind of thing; if you hit it at the right angle with a rock, it forms a sharp edge, very similar to your teeth, and you can use the edge to cut all sorts of things.
        donw 18y ago
        "Emo Technology"?
        kragen 18y ago
        Do rocks make you sad? Or is it the conchoidal fractures?
jimbokun 18y ago
"I've been thinking about the first time I castrated a lamb with my teeth." Suddenly, my job satisfaction sitting here programming just went up a notch.
- umjames 18y ago
  The most uncomfortable part of that sentence is "the first time". Apparently, this is routinely called for.
  - LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
    A friend of mine grew up on a farm in Idaho. Apparently, the upside of birthing a cow is that "at least you've got somewhere warm to stick your hands."
    - umjames 18y ago
      Hopefully, there's somewhere warmer to boil your hands afterwards. Do they at least wear latex surgical gloves?
      - HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
        It's the inside of a cow for heaven's sake. What do you think you're going to catch? Mad cow disease?
        mynameishere 18y ago
        http://images.google.com/images?q=veterinary%20gloves&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi http://images.google.com/images?q=veterinary%20gloves&um... Very related: http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=114759&title=swine-song http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=114759...
- mynameishere 18y ago
  I refuse to believe that there isn't a tool better at that job than human teeth.
ercowo 18y ago
a common thread seems to be working outside and/or working with animals. I'm convinced that there are qualities to these jobs that resonate more with our innate (evolved) abilities than a desk / programming job. I'm thinking of taking 3-4 months off to volunteer in a national park (or something like that) between my current job and my next
- HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
  There is something to that. I live on a farm and while I bitch about going outside in subzero temperatures to care for the animals, there is a satisfaction in doing the basic, hard physical work that I don't get from sitting at a desk programming. We are definitely hardwired to be outside and it's sad that we spend so much of our time indoors. Surrounded by the white silence of snow, admiring the beauty of sundogs on a -10F morning is an amazing way to begin a workday. And starting out your day sliding around in mud & chickenshit certainly gives you perspective when listening to some drone in a meeting :-)

Tichy 18y ago

Hm, the scary thing is, I think if my true passion was picking up road kill, I would probably never find out. It would never have occured to me to try that profession. So I am doomed :-(

mlLK 18y ago
I picked up roadkill for two summers in a row while working for the DPW, but we never called it roadkill, we denoted the dearly departed as 'buddies'. It was sorta funny since you may wonder, "Where do all them buddies go after you get done pickin em all up?" They all went in this 12ft hole known as the buddy pit.
- dbooher 18y ago
  "buddy pit", haha, Glorious =) i'll take spontaneous ironic humour like that over the artificial corporate "team building/inspirational" talk any day of the (work)week.

swombat 18y ago

Why not follow both your passions AND the opportunities around you? Why does it have to be an either/or thing? If you're passionate about something, chances are you'll spot opportunities to do it. "Follow your opportunities" is good advice, but this article fails to realise that some (most?) of us won't feel that we've fulfilled our purpose in life (irrespective of religious considerations - I'm talking about that sense of self-fulfillment you get when you're doing something you think is worthwhile) if we spend it castrating lamb with our teeth. So follow your passion AND your opportunities. Don't settle for only one.

HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
There's nothing wrong with your advice. The problem is that too many people think they must find their passion in their work and that's a tall order to fill. Far easier to work to pay the bills and indulge your passions after that's done.
- swombat 18y ago
  I disagree with that. I enjoy what I'm doing, I'm passionate about it, and having done it the other way as well, I wouldn't change back. It's great to wake up in the morning and think "Yes! I'm going to spend all day working!" without a trace of sarcasm. Some people may be able to do a job that they hate, but it saps my soul.
  - dbooher 18y ago
    I'm glad you enjoy your job. I share your sentiments as well, but I think what the parent was talking about, is that some kids are thrown "Follow your dreams" so much that they are paralyzed by it. You and I are lucky to have found our passion now, but what were you doing before you found your passion? Some kids don't know their passion yet, and hence can't stand to work any job; doing anything, even sticking with a "random" faculty seems betrayal to their true calling. I've seen so many people who just wont do anything with their lives while they're just "waiting" for that feeling to kick in. They go to a job and come home navel gazing, thinking "is this it? is this it?" and when no magical sparks happen in the first week, they decide this isn't for them and is beneath them, and quit or just don't show up. Same thing in relationships: we're fed 'if you find the right person it'll be perfect bliss' so often that we're not willing to just do the dirty work, and find happiness in it. In short, we are a generation that doesn't know how to "settle". "Settling" and "Contentment" are shameful words in our society.
    - swombat 18y ago
      I see what you're saying, and I agree. That's why I say you should follow both passions and opportunities. Certainly if all the good opportunities aren't stuff that you're that passionate about, you should follow the opportunities - while looking out for more appropriate opportunities. I did, however, get the impression, from the article, that it implied you should forget about passion and just do what everyone else doesn't want to do. That to me is just as stupid as what you're describing (following passions only).

wallflower 18y ago

Hmmm. Some of the jobs are extreme examples but a smart kid I knew since he was a toddler - when he graduated from high school in his valedictory address said, "Work doesn't necessarily make you happy. but it may give you to means to do the stuff that makes you happy." There is a point that some of the most profitable jobs are those that people don't like to do and/or niches.

peregrine 18y ago

Mike Rowe is a great guy, and this was a great article. This is why I come to hacker news.

swilliams 18y ago
"What does surprise me is the fact that everybody I've met on this gig--with the possible exception of the lamb--seems to be having a ball." I love Mike Rowe's sense of humor. Even if I did scream in revulsion when I read the first paragraph.
- tallanvor 18y ago
  Seeing him actually do it was even worse than reading about it!
  - rationalbeaver 18y ago
    When I read that bit, all I could think was "Man, there has got to be a better way to do that". Perhaps I'll be inventing a lamb castrator device this weekend...
    - kragen 18y ago
      I hear there's this material called "flint" that works well for that kind of thing; if you hit it at the right angle with a rock, it forms a sharp edge, very similar to your teeth, and you can use the edge to cut all sorts of things.
      - donw 18y ago
        "Emo Technology"?
        kragen 18y ago
        Do rocks make you sad? Or is it the conchoidal fractures?

jimbokun 18y ago

"I've been thinking about the first time I castrated a lamb with my teeth." Suddenly, my job satisfaction sitting here programming just went up a notch.

umjames 18y ago
The most uncomfortable part of that sentence is "the first time". Apparently, this is routinely called for.
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
  A friend of mine grew up on a farm in Idaho. Apparently, the upside of birthing a cow is that "at least you've got somewhere warm to stick your hands."
  - umjames 18y ago
    Hopefully, there's somewhere warmer to boil your hands afterwards. Do they at least wear latex surgical gloves?
    - HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
      It's the inside of a cow for heaven's sake. What do you think you're going to catch? Mad cow disease?
      - mynameishere 18y ago
        http://images.google.com/images?q=veterinary%20gloves&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi http://images.google.com/images?q=veterinary%20gloves&um... Very related: http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=114759&title=swine-song http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=114759...
mynameishere 18y ago
I refuse to believe that there isn't a tool better at that job than human teeth.

ercowo 18y ago

a common thread seems to be working outside and/or working with animals. I'm convinced that there are qualities to these jobs that resonate more with our innate (evolved) abilities than a desk / programming job. I'm thinking of taking 3-4 months off to volunteer in a national park (or something like that) between my current job and my next

HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
There is something to that. I live on a farm and while I bitch about going outside in subzero temperatures to care for the animals, there is a satisfaction in doing the basic, hard physical work that I don't get from sitting at a desk programming. We are definitely hardwired to be outside and it's sad that we spend so much of our time indoors. Surrounded by the white silence of snow, admiring the beauty of sundogs on a -10F morning is an amazing way to begin a workday. And starting out your day sliding around in mud & chickenshit certainly gives you perspective when listening to some drone in a meeting :-)