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Even if “anyone who makes physical stuff” has heard of them, manufacturing jobs represent 12.8 million jobs[1] compared to 158 million non-farm jobs[2]. That’s

by tpmoney 11mo ago

Even if “anyone who makes physical stuff” has heard of them, manufacturing jobs represent 12.8 million jobs[1] compared to 158 million non-farm jobs[2]. That’s 8% of the workforce. Let’s double that to account for people that used to work in manufacturing or are in maker hobbies and the like. Even at 16% I would comfortably stand by the assertion that most people have not heard about McMaster Carr’s website being a very high functioning web site. [1]: https://www.statista.com/chart/34316/share-of-manufacturing-jobs-in-us-employment/ https://www.statista.com/chart/34316/share-of-manufacturing-... [2]: https://falconproducts.co.in/us-manufacturing-workforce-percentage-key-stats-and-insights-for https://falconproducts.co.in/us-manufacturing-workforce-perc...

jjk166 11mo ago
Well by that logic, there are 4.4 million software developers, much less than half the employment of manufacturing, in the US. Should we introduce stack overflow as a website you've never heard of? I'm sure plenty of people haven't heard of it, but I wouldn't assume any particular person hasn't.
- tpmoney 11mo ago
  > Should we introduce stack overflow as a website you've never heard of? Yes? Obviously who you're writing for matters. I wouldn't write an article specifically targeted at and submitted to software developers and use that for a title, but I would absolutely have no problem at all introducing Stack Overflow as a site you haven't heard of (or maybe I'd qualify it as "probably haven't heard of) if writing something for a general audience. It's a safe bet that most people you talk to wouldn't have heard of Stack Overflow, so there's nothing wrong with a headline for a broad audience that assumes that. Would you object to a headline for an article written for a general audience that calls "lwn.net" a site you haven't heard of? Or maybe an article that calls Admiral Grace Hopper a computer pioneer you haven't heard of? Sure everyone on this site almost certainly has heard of them. But in the general public?

by tpmoney 11mo ago

jjk166 11mo ago

Well by that logic, there are 4.4 million software developers, much less than half the employment of manufacturing, in the US. Should we introduce stack overflow as a website you've never heard of? I'm sure plenty of people haven't heard of it, but I wouldn't assume any particular person hasn't.

tpmoney 11mo ago
> Should we introduce stack overflow as a website you've never heard of? Yes? Obviously who you're writing for matters. I wouldn't write an article specifically targeted at and submitted to software developers and use that for a title, but I would absolutely have no problem at all introducing Stack Overflow as a site you haven't heard of (or maybe I'd qualify it as "probably haven't heard of) if writing something for a general audience. It's a safe bet that most people you talk to wouldn't have heard of Stack Overflow, so there's nothing wrong with a headline for a broad audience that assumes that. Would you object to a headline for an article written for a general audience that calls "lwn.net" a site you haven't heard of? Or maybe an article that calls Admiral Grace Hopper a computer pioneer you haven't heard of? Sure everyone on this site almost certainly has heard of them. But in the general public?