I know I specifically asked for a chair, and the chair you made is a very good chair, but my use case is actually reaching things in high places and this just doesn’t get to the top shelves so you’re gonna need to make the legs longer, I think.
Same with the neofetch dev, saw all this AI crap coming and just jumped into farming
Senior engineer of embedded c/c++ here. I have referred to myself a few times on here as trying to live the superposition of the engineer and the goose farmer. Now that I’ve built a palace of a chicken coop and there are grown chickens running around with the dogs betweenn the play house and koi pond, my back yard is turning into a village from a Zelda game or something.
My power tools are newer and more numerous than my computing devices by far, lol. And it’s all higher end DeWalt stuff because using a good tool can be satisfying as hell. Plus I’ve already spent more money on wood, and the tools will last a long time.
The kernel (heh) of truth underpinning this meme is real and profound. If you spend all your time on screens and in cyberspace, if you go beyond touching grass and get your fingers in the dirt or build something physical, it could be extremely good for you. It works great for me!
I’m an embedded software engineer, too. While I love my job (for the time being) I definitely need to do other stuff with my free time. A junior colleague of mine couldn’t understand why I bake my own bread rolls when I could save so much time by just buying them, but I’m sure in time he’ll get there.
I’m convinced that there is a flaw deep down in the basics of our culture that essentially says that success and prosperity and a good modern life all mean that you don’t need to actually do shit for yourself. All you need to do is make enough money at the job where you presumably actually do productive work, then you can pay some person or some company to take care of all the other shit in life.
No doubt it’s a side effect of, if not a primary design feature of, our hyper-capitalist mindset. The ideal citizen is either working or consuming during all waking hours.
Sometimes accomplishing a goal in the way that’s the most expensive and takes the most personal effort is actually the best way to go about it, assuming you count “improves my life” in your ROI calculation and not just the dollars in and out.
Not a programmer but doing healthcare IT coming from the equally mind numbing healthcare side.
…I feel you.
My woodworking shop in my basement is my solace that keeps my out of a mental institution. Most of my electric tools are oldet than I am - but the good ones, often bought during closing down sales from small carpentry companies.
Besides a self build CNC it’s kept technology free by principle. The CNC is just too handy,though.
Not growing goose,but the ITsec wife dreams of raising Capybaras one day.
If you like quality power tools, don’t look into Maffel or Festool. They’ll destroy your bank account.
I read “DBMS” as “DSBM” at first.
I need to get out more.
I read it as BDSM… Not sure what I should do…
Get in more
🤘
…and no mandate to use AI to increase productivity
It’s NOT funny! With all the AI shit, micro-managers trying to be clones of Hitler, and unemployment to make the line go up, it’s something I’m seriously considering.
It used to be a meme, because every so often a dev left into that direction, even though most devs loved their job. A month ago, I was talking in the office with three other devs when this came up as a topic. It was not a meme anymore, every single one of us had seriously considered it.
I went to trade school a couple years ago. Like three or four of my classmates were former programmers who were sick of the AI shit
17 year IT veteran here. I work on a dairy farm now. It’s a peaceful life.
My buddy recently asked if I had any leads on stagehand work, because he spontaneously quit his IT job last month. He said that compared to the stress of modern IT work, he’d rather be a local roadcase pusher.
I’ve been restoring classic cars for 3 yeses now. Lost my company 3 months before the pandemic and haven’t looked back.
in finance the dream is usually herding sheep
even though most devs loved their job
This is the crazy reality of tech workers. I work in security and I really enjoy my work, but I’m about two days from rage quitting and making furniture out of wood.
See my comments for advice
Most people are describing a vibe not an actual career aspiration.
It makes perfect sense too. Most tech workers, I assume at least, enjoy building things, but these days the tech you build (or tangentially work on in my case mostly) is fluff. Even if the product isn’t fluff, the tech world seems to try very hard to make sure you feel nothing towards it. You don’t feel like you’re a part of it and you don’t see yourself in the work. The product isn’t for you and it isn’t even for the users, they, and you, are means to an end. The end is money for the people in charge of the company or investors. The natural feeling then is to be drawn to some sort of physical craft, something you make yourself and very tangibly exists. Something you can see yourself and the results of your labor in.
I’m going to probably have to do something else, because I’m losing my mind, but I’m not good enough at making things out of wood and have a house to pay off. I relate to the feeling though and the concept of “I no longer work in software and instead make furniture out of wood”. It’s a metaphor
Shit I’m considering going back to retail!
None of that shit except maybe the AI goes away in a woodshop. Hell, owners probably love AI because now they don’t need to pay a designer and drawer.
well as someone who works in a woodshop and has received plans from a client designed by ai, i can saw without reservation that we definitely still need someone to design and draw plans.
also im not sure how to spell draw-er, but a drawer is a little slidey bit in a cabinet that you can put stuff in and close.
A drawer and a drawer are two different things, there’s a word for words like that. You can say Technical Drawer to draw distinction I suppose, or maybe Drafter is more correct but that feels architectural to me. Funny enough Drawers have slides, and so do drawers. I need to take my meds
The AI reason is enough, but if someone has their own shop, then there aren’t micromanagers either.
Oh you mean a one man shop. Unless you’re already famous it’s just going to be a hobby shop, the furniture market is completely fucked by overseas competition. We made furniture for David Iatesta, which I guess is some fancy ass design house. A ~40 4poster king size bedframe in red oak was our priciest standard option, we sold to them for ~$2.5k, they sanded a little more, and added ugly finishes and sold for $10k+
Yes, that’s what I was meaning. You’re right, it would be tough to make enough money without already having something if a following doing furniture.
Sorry to bag on the dream dude. I highly recommend getting yourself a lathe and a drill press at harbor freight and going town. Both are relatively safe tools (no loose hair/clothing) with no blades, easy to learn, and the range of stuff you can make with those two alone is large. It’s a wonderful hobby, it’s a pretty terrible job. I may still be recovering from the trauma a decade later because I have not built a personal piece since I was fired.
The fat ass that hasn’t physically produced a piece of furniture in 25 years, changes plans halfway through builds, checks scrap for “egregious waste”, nickles and dimes overtime, always has out of scope tasks for anyone he takes a disliking to, I could go on… is absolutely a micromanager. The foreman was paid the most to be in charge on the shop floor, make decisions on the fly, handle vendors and materials purchases, but was frequently overridden by a voice yelling from a lofted office space. Just because they own the business doesn’t mean they can’t micromanage. Sounds like the stuff a micromanager owner would say
I’m thinking more a person that builds furniture, then sells the completed piece. There’s definitely possibility of plan changes part way through when doing custom work, but a solo wood worker either doesn’t have to do custom jobs or can take payment (or partial) up front and not deal with it. I also don’t consider change requests as micromanagement as annoying as they can be.
If you work for yourself, the only micromanager is you, and that’s your own fault.
https://www.iatestastudio.com/product-details/nantucket-lamp-M205
I turned so many of these omg
I recognize that screenshot, pretty sure this was before widespread AI adoption. I can still relate to this guy today, just like I could back when I first saw that comment.
The RSS feed shouldn’t be added. It should be the primary application.
I’m currently going down the software engineer to woodworker pipeline…
I can count the number of people I know who have done that on two hands… Three people.
Not me, I’d totally suck at it. I am leaning towards becoming a gardener specializing in super hot peppers.
Me too! I wonder how common it actually is?
There is just something so very satisfying about making something you can physically touch and hold after spending a lot of time …not… doing that
My DBA friend builds a lot of sets for school productions and community theatre. It’s only a matter of time…
Same here, went into finish carpentry, and timber framing. I may return one day to code if the opportunity allows, but this isn’t too bad actually.
My senior always jokes about opening a food truck. One day they’re gonna push us hard enough that we’ll do it, too.
The difference between IT and important jobs, is that I get to drink on the clock in IT. In fact it’s mandated.
At my old job, the IT department had a kombucha tap right at the end of their counter. I always wondered if they considered swapping the kombucha keg out for something stronger.
My first tech job had a beer fridge and a guy who filled it that we all called the Beer Captain.
I swear I must be the only sucker that hasn’t encountered one of these freely drinking tech companies.
It’s not just tech companies lol. It’s funny, the place we would have meetings–when it was a lot of people–was 50% off for the company. It was a nice cantina. Let’s just say my beer mug was a jug and I didn’t have to pay for it lol. >_> one time I was the designated driver sigh. Good thing it was a minute drive and then we would all drink more at the bosses house. Even when I worked in education, no one gave me shit coming in smelling of booze; one day I had to call off after reading my students file. No one blamed me for getting shitfaced after reading that.
You’re not the only one, I’ve been with quite a few startups and before that I worked with VC’s to help get new portfolio companies rolling with IT. Never have a seen it, I’ve only heard of it.
It’s probably for the best, I predict I’d either drink too much or complain that they only buy crappy beer :)
Did you ever try it? Or is kombutcha just what they wrote on the label?
I did try it. If it was beer, it was the weakest, fruitiest beer I’ve ever tried.
Was that some sort of kombucha-flavoured soft drink? Actual kombucha drink tastes only like vinegar. (I drank it for maybe a year in a health-crazed period ~20 years ago xD)
There’s some kombucha that tastes quite fruity and sweet. Actually in that city there was a kombucha company that made a really delicious grape kombucha.
thanks, TIL :)
I was a programmer for 25-some years but I haven’t written a line of code since 2019. I now get my engineering jollies from the used school bus I converted to a motorhome and from the house I bought three years ago and am finishing up renovating. For money I drive a school bus, which pays about 1/6 of what I used to make but is infinitely more satisfying. As far as retirement goes, I’m hoping to die a painless death before AI replaces all the CDL jobs in the country. I think AI will work fine for school buses, mainly because kids are easier to replace the younger they are.
Ok, I had to reply because this runs parallel to my own retirement plans. What’s the easiest path to a CDL? What’s the cost and length of time instruction to actual licensure? Any caveats or roadblocks (pun not intended, but I’m not editing it out).
I know I can look this up on different school websites, but I wanted to get a first hand accounting of the process. My currently ill-defined goal is to be a bus driver for the local transit company (rural). Some F550 with a bus body, and some actual buses.
Do you have a Class B or C? Passenger endorsement, I’m guessing, too. Would it be wise to get a class B just in case I needed to pivot to driving something else, like a commercial dump truck for construction?
Sorry, lots of questions, I know.
Some school districts will train you for the CDL, and some even pay you while you’re training (mine didn’t at the time). My training didn’t take very long because I already owned a used school bus and knew how to drive it, at least. You have to take four standardized tests (general CDL, airbrakes, passenger endorsement and school bus endorsement), have a driving exam, and take a 14-hour special school bus class (this is all in PA, at least). The standardized tests aren’t super-difficult, but you do have to actually know the shit, you can’t guess your way through it and hope to get a passing grade. I just crammed the free online tests over and over until I was getting 100% on them. I think it was maybe a month and a half between when I started my training and my first day on the job, but that was with not doing a whole lot each day. My district was (and still is) a weird combination of desperate need for drivers with a frustratingly slow pace of actually training people.
I have a class C. I wouldn’t bother with a class B unless I actually needed it.
Living the literal dream. Every software engineers fantasy is to be an artisan carpenter.
Not true, some of them want to raise goats.
Not at all. I want to be a park ranger. In the central Highlands of Iceland. In perpetual winter.
Is this is reference to the Microsoft guy’s LinkedIn meme? This one: https://programmerhumor.io/microsoft-memes/peak-programmer-career-trajectory-lntk
I assumed it was the neofetch guy.
I was enjoying reading this until he “found God” 😐 happy for his new healthy lifestyle though
Yea didn’t see that coming
Personally, I want to make historical reproductions of early 1900s fountain pens but with modern materials. Moore’s non-leakable in chased ultem, my white whale…
Sign me up. I’ll take one
I’ve gotta get my lathe trued and my CNC… uh… assembled, but if in three years when I get around to doing that I remember this comment I’ll send you one lol.
I’ll remind you about your cnc just as soon as I replace my x-axis screw. So, uh, also about three years?
It’s a deal.
Reindeer, but close enough.
Geese, thank you very much
My fantasy is to taste-test crisps.
Did that once. Not as exciting as you might think.
I’m in biotech and my wife and I keep talking about quitting our jobs and opening a meadery.
I spent a few years bouncing between the ideas of opening a coffee shop, and ice cream shop, or a fruit stand.
the most important bit is we have a small stage for live music and open mic nights.
and of course i ended up making custom musical instruments for a living instead of any of that.
Oh cool, it sounds like you were able to boil it down to what you really wanted to do.
drive my wife batty? yeah
Intriguing!
Probably more as a small scale personal project than a business venture (the bureaucracy around food-production would kill me) for me though.
Do you make it already on your free time? Can it be made without honey?
Wouldn’t be mead without honey.
Mead-ish? Meadly?
Ha! Only 2 questions in and you are already in “you won’t believe it is butter” territory.
Haha unfortunately it comes with the territory when refusing animal products but still wanting to eat similar to everyone else - I CAN have my cake and eat it too, kinda (with soy cream).
I’ll slogan my homebrewed syrup-beer: “you won’t believe it’s mead! (it’s not)”.
Honestly, while I love eating butter, I’d rather not look for similar looking replacements.
I can very well go with peanut/coconut oil (for cooking) and blended peanut for spreading, instead of using randomly processed industrial idk-what-oil based stuff that was originally developed with the intent to reduce costs to companies and then half-heartedly attempted to cater to those who care about nutrition, with a whole fake health campaign to make it work.Forget that, I’d rather just eat my bread with water.
There are plenty of good substitution products available nowadays - even found one not-butter tasty enough to make my whole family switch to it, until it went out of production… probably as well for our arteries. But I’ve yet to find a good replacement cheese though, so I’d rather go without.
Fun mead fact: The word “mead” descends from the Proto-Indo-European word for honey.
I’d have to call it Sirop (sugared drink) or something… Maybe “sugar meadley” or “agave meadley”!
Agave makes the basis for tequila, before distillation.
But if it’s just sugar water and yeast, it will be a bit gross.
In my foggy memory, mead tasted like very sweet beer, so I assumed some grain would be involved, but perhaps not.
If the flavour comes only from honey (and the process), it’ll probably be a lot harder to imitate.
Raw honey has a lot of flavor. And beer has barley and hops for flavor.
Also the yeast contributes a lot. There are so many varieties of yeast.
But the problem with pure sugar is that it’s one dimensional. The yeast go into overdrive and starts spitting out off flavors.
pure sugar is that it’s one dimensional
are we talking like, the white granulated shit? because we gave processed sugarcane and sugar beets to the cows as treats. also stole a little for ourselves (it still had plenty of sugar in the cane and beet after they’d extracted the sugar juice somehow. i don’t know how you juice a cane. then they sold it to us. don’t ask me how it works, i was a kid and this is what i was told) and they tasted great. i think it’s that we had the plant the sugar came from rather than just the sugar. the plant gave the sugar flavor depth. think how brown sugar (sugar without the molasses extracted) has a different flavor than white sugar.
i’d still call the cane or the beet “pure sugar”, since that’s what they made the white granulated shit out of. that’s me tho, and the contexts i’d be using it in pure would mean more natural/unmodified/untainted than homogenous.
I have friends who’ve made mead out of skittles
Isn’t sugar, water, and yeast basically the ingredients for hard seltzer? Add some flavoring after the fact and I feel like you’re having a pretty good time
Our area is filled with local breweries, so I think a meadery as a local business would work.
We do! We’ve been doing ~1 gallon batches which gives us 5 or 6 bottles of finished product. We’ve been buying honey from the big box grocers but I want to switch to buying from a local beekeeper.
I’ve never tried using not honey, do you mean like Agave nectar or similar?
If you make alcohol out of agave, you’re just making tequila at that point
Youd still have to distill it to get tequila. I am kinda interested in trying a fermented agave batch now.
True! I’m sure there’s a word for agave “beer.” (or would it be a wine?)
If any of the small time beekeepers I’ve met are anything to go by, they’ll be happy to make a deal where you take some of their honey to make mead with, a portion of which they’d sell.
The beekeeper I dealt with was a moron. He texts me and says he’s got a bucket of honey that he thinks started to ferment with wild yeast. So I offered a reasonable price for the bucket and he counters with full price, like I’m just gonna take a full risk on his fuck up. I finished up what dealings I had with him and haven’t talked to to him since. They’re just people, in other words.
Maybe even a beekeeper who also could retail your mead, if they already have store space and customers and an assortment of honey-related products…!
Yeah, I don’t eat honey so haven’t even thought about mead in a decade, but the one time I had it, it was delicious! I suppose the market of buyers with allergies or dietary restrictions against honey is too small, but I wonder if it could be possible for home use (where no one cares that it’s not “real mead”).
Depending on where you are, selling booze is a massive financial undertaking. In the US, you better have 6 figures hanging around to blow. And years to wait.
Where I live you can sell like small batches of self-produced stuff (like a bottle or two after a tour or tasting), so it’s not very expensive to get such a permit, but too much paper work for my taste.
The little bit of looking into it that we’ve done, we know anything sold must be produced in a commercial kitchen, and that would be a big expense because real estate around here is ridiculous. It’s really a pipe dream at this point but gives some hope to hang onto that there is something else out there for us.
Yeah… And in the meantime you always have something to gift people.
I did this, except I actually have better pay and benefits than I did working in tech (I was a low paid web developer, now I am a highly paid finish carpenter). I was just warning my coworkers today to get ready for the wave of ex-programmers hitting the trades.
You were really getting shafted as a web developer and likely could’ve made a lot more… But on the other hand I’m glad you found something you like more. I still prefer programming, with or without AI assistance, to just about any other work I could do. I have a gig where I generally get to solve slightly different problems every day (very wide domain) and I have no idea what other job could provide this without being in danger from LLMs.
I know a few carpenters of the self-employed variety and I gather it can be a very rewarding job if you’re into it. I could never, I need more stimulation for my ADHD, I need to be able to do a week worth of work in 2 hours when things are overdue, it doesn’t really work in carpentry lol
You were really getting shafted as a web developer and likely could’ve made a lot more
I don’t think you know how much experienced finish carpenters get paid.
raises hand
Construction is nice. We mostly demolish things. It’s good exercise, fun, and keeps the demons at bay.
i once took over a consultancy gig at a high-tech optical lab. when me and the guy i was replacing were leaving on the last day of the handover i asked just conversationally where he was going next, and he told me he was going back to school to be a painter. guy was in his mid-50s.
Like fine art or like, tradecraft painter? Haha
i think the former but the latter would probably make more sense.
My dad went from db management to running a grocery store.
My one friend is now becoming an HVAC technician
We’re getting more analog every day
From database management to people management!
Well he owns and runs it with my mom. No other employees (barring me helping him)
