> Personally, I can’t deny that seeing someone doing work with their own two hands feels more authentic and true to me. I find the idea of others in my field wh

> Personally, I can’t deny that seeing someone doing work with their own two hands feels more authentic and true to me. I find the idea of others in my field who have never experienced physical labor very strange to consider. I fully agree. I also have close relatives who do work with their hands (one is a fine woodworker, amusingly enough – he makes some jaw-droppingly beautiful things), and they’ve all assured me that they view the work I do as also being demanding, just mentally instead of physically. I do personally believe that some amount of physical labor, even if it’s pure grunt work, is beneficial for your overall well-being and societal views. I’ve built retaining walls, a large deck, some fences, and various (non-fine) woodworking projects around the house. You come away from those with a sense of pride and accomplishment (TM EA) that is difficult to find with anything else. > If you center your value entirely in how appreciative others are of the contributions you make, and in what you can provide, you ignore the actual concept of community, and you potentially build a worldview that denigrates those who you view as not contributing “enough” in your manner. I can accept that, though I will gently push back in that I don’t think many people in tech – myself certainly included – are producing much that’s objectively valuable to society. Economically, yes, but from a communal / societal standpoint? Meh. > If you have the capability to contribute work in some way – physical strength, knowledge, or mental acuity, then you have a moral responsibility to do so – yet not having as much capability as some other person is not something that should negate your self-worth. Instead, the act of doing what you can is what should be seen as virtuous, rather than the absolute economic output of your personal capability. Do what you can, build a community through simple acts of socialization and giving to others, and improve the lives of everyone around you. That is how we find fulfillment in a world such as this one. Well-said! Or, as someone else once put it, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”