Ask HN : What would you do if you had to switch to a "manual" job?

[dan_sim]

It includes every job that a computer is not (or almost) used.

[DanielBMarkham]

Stone mason. You carry all of your tools in your back pocket, you get to work on and build beautiful and cool things that people enjoy, and when you're done your work can last for hundreds of years. (Plus you get to be outside and meet lots of interesting folk)

I've also had a hankering for owning my own sub shop at the beach. Walk up in your bare feet, place an order, and minutes later I've created something that makes you happy. I get to wear whatever I want, and the scenery is gorgeous.

[jakewolf]

I've built dry stacked stone walls. Can't beat the feeling of satisfaction knowing they will stand for over a century.

[cdw]

If you haven't already picked up a copy, you would probably enjoy the excellent book, "The Art of the Stonemason".

See here: http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001414.php

[davi]

It's neat that I can find someone else who has the same answer as me for something that's mildly obscure, and that this answer has 3 upvotes already. Hackers and stonemasonry, who knew? Makes sense, though.

[erlanger]

> You carry all of your tools in your back pocket

That would be cool were it true, but the fact is that all construction work nowadays requires a ton of equipment, stonemasonry included.

[comster]

I like this opposed to my typical startup work that gets trashed in record time.

[KB]

Before I started college, I pretty much had two directions I wanted to go. Either go to college(for CS) or earn a Master Electricians license. I went with the former, however I sometimes wish I had gone the other direction.

Soooooo.... The manual job for me would have been an Electrician. I have friends that chose this route and are doing very well for themselves now. Good pay, make your own hours, potential to start your own business, etc. Manual labor in my opinion is extremely underrated, especially when it comes to trade related work. College is pushed so hard to high schoolers these days, that nobody considers alternative paths. Just like earning a college degree, I think you can lead a good life and possibly become extremely successful applying your skills to learning a trade.

[lsc]

Ask your local SysAdmin; you can do ok without a degree even without going into 'the trades'

[tsally]

Sean: So what do you really want to do?

Will: I wanna be a shepherd.

Sean: Really.

Will: I wanna move up to Nashua, get a nice little spread, get some sheep and tend to them.

[mapleoin]

But he didn't really mean it. He was just mocking the doc, right? That's how I remember it at least. He just wanted to do construction work like the rest of his friends.

[tedshroyer]

I'd be a farmer. I raise blueberry bushes as my weekend hobby right now and doing it full time I could get some animals.

[dan_sim]

I would work in a bike shop. Repairing bikes everyday of the week.

[ganley]

Bike messenger.

[icefox]

Which kind of bikes? (Both sound like fun, but for different reasons)

[zaidf]

Farming, like my grandfather.

[edw519]

Stand-up comic. I wouldn't even have to write anything. I'd just tell enterprise software war stories. That oughta keep 'em laughing for a while.

[lnguyen]

Either that or you'll be keeping them up at night wondering why anything actually works.

[yan]

I have a follow up question to this: Whatever you're listing now, do you do this in your spare time?

[mynameishere]

I didn't list anything, so yes.

[Femur]

Yes. I have an orchard in Missouri that I tend to when I can. Persimmon, Fig, Quince, Pomegranate, Apples, Mulberries, Peaches, Apricots, Cherries.

[lsc]

when I have spare time, yes.

Even though I can command pretty good wages, it's often worth an afternoon, for example, to swap out the rotors and break pads on my car. I'm almost earning enough to pay for it, but when you consider that the money comes out post tax, it still makes sense for me to do it myself. Besides, it's interesting and almost relaxing. And it means that I make superior decisions as to when I need to replace the thing, too. (it also means I can economically own a much nicer car than otherwise; at one point I had a used bmw 325Is. having a professional swap out the breaks was north of a grand, or maybe 1/4th that in parts to do yourself. Luxury cars cost a lot more to repair, and as far as I can tell, it's a 'because we can' fee- it was actually much easier to work on the BMW than to work on the nissan I currently drive. Assuming you have the right documentation, that is. there was always a 'trick' that made what you were doing really easy on the BMW. Pay extra for the Bentley publishing manual, if you have a BMW. the Chilton brand 'book of lies' is not worth the paper it is printed on.)

On the other hand, I usually pay others to, for instance, change the oil. It's usually cheap, and it's pretty messy to do in the driveway.

[teuobk]

I do, but I call them "hobbies" instead of jobs. Not relying on them for income makes all the difference in the world.

[gamache]

Definitely. I said 'chef' and I cook 4-7 nights a week. However, to the extent that I need to eat, perhaps the time is not 'spare'. :)

[profquail]

I think it would really cool to be a winemaker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winemaking

[reduxredacted]

Agreed.

My father-in-law makes and gives away enough that he's probably violating a few laws about liquor distribution.

He's from Eastern Europe and everyone he knew made wine. It's amazing how interesting his wine tastes compared to the bottled variety. No sulfites, no ingredients other than grapes.

It tastes best about 9 months after it was created and goes south after about a year. The craziest thing, though, is that at about month 12 it starts to sparkle a little. Nothing serious like Champaign, but a bit of tingle on the tongue (and it hits you a little quicker imo).

There's only a few downsides:

1) Fruit flies. Oh man. It's bad. When I assisted him last year the first stage of filtering, we poured the waste out and it looked like half of it was dirt... except the dirt was moving. He does it in his garage so for about three months there's a thin layer of flies over everything in there and enough get into the house to make it sufficiently annoying.

2) Pressing is hard work and the amount that he makes, just about every other step in the process is very tedious. Part of that is because he refuses to use anything resembling modern equipment. It's all hard labour.

3) The temptation to turn the wine into Brandy always looms. Which is a great idea and produces fantastic truly snifter worthy brandy, but also runs the risk of burning your house down.

It's worth it though. Even the labour, since in the end you have natures best pain killer as your reward.

[compay]

Equine blacksmith. You're basically a cobbler/podiatrist for horses. All the fun of being an equine vet, without having to castrate them or stick your arm up their butts.

[Mankhool]

You mean a farrier? I learned alongside the neighbour who used to shoe our horses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrier

[cpr]

My son's a farrier. I think having an egghead/hacker father probably pushed him as far as he could get from technology. ;-)

[firstlastname]

+1

[myth_drannon]

Gardening. Actually, right now I have a small garden on my balcony that I take care around 30 min each day, helps to relax, clear my mind after programming all day.

[rokhayakebe]

Barista.

Large House Blend $2.00. Bagel and Cream Cheese $1.49. Handing someone a cup of coffee and seeing that smile on their face, Priceless.

There are some jobs you get just for the money. For everything else, there is Barista.

[gamache]

Chef.

[huhtenberg]

It's one thing to cook well for your family, and a completely different thing to routinely cook 30 orders in 60 minutes during a lunch rush. It gets very unglamorous very quickly.

[joshfinnie]

+1 for chef. I just love to cook, but it is definitely a manual job!

[retroryan]

Maybe there is an opportunity here for hackers. Some sort of job swapping / training site. It seems a lot of hackers would like to work a "manual job" and I would bet a lot of people doing manual labors would like to learn about computers.

[ryanwaggoner]

Restore WWII-era aircraft

[TallGuyShort]

Construction. House-hacking.

[pj]

I've recently started focusing on a home remodeling after some renters destroyed it. It is a lot of hard work. Very manual labor: ripping out walls, painting, cleaning up the yard.

But yes, very rewarding. You can actually see the work. People in the town stop and comment on how much better it looks. Everyone can tell if a house looks better, but not many can tell if a website has a better architecture.

[skolor]

There is something very satisfying about construction. Being able to stand back and look at the finished project is something you don't get to do with computers very much, and being able to then walk inside it is just an amazing feeling.

Really makes me wish I had more time to work with Habitat for Humanity.

[donw]

I spent last weekend rebuilding my parents' kitchen as an anniversary present, and yeah, building houses is definitely rewarding, hard work.

[jwecker]

Whatever it would be, I have no doubt that I'd start looking for ways to automate it (for better or worse).

[jamie_ca]

As a followup question: "Why aren't you?" Is it just that the computer gigs are better paying, or is the listed profession only a second love?

[lsc]

better pay, better possibility of more pay in the future, and probably more interesting long term. The automotive industry is quite mature at this point, and therefore boring.

I could totally see myself going into cars, though, if I was born a century earlier. That would have been really interesting.

[neilk]

Better paying, fewer hassles, don't wear out your body as quickly.

I know a guy who was a superstar networking engineer in the 90s, who now is a wildlands firefighter. But it's not like he left all his problems behind in computing -- there are still politics and other workplace frustrations.

[bsaunder]

Computer gigs feel more productive... I can make a computer do much more work than I can. If successful I can effect the lives of many more people with software than with manual labor.

[alex_c]

Catamaran owner in the Caribbean.

[Femur]

How would you generate an income from that profession?

[bddbbdb]

Stonemason, artist, (unemployed) mathematician.

[mnemonicsloth]

Nice username. Mathematician and emacs user?