I've done manual labor in both construction and at a lumber mill.
Invariably, the following happened:
- I was given grunt work as a I was the new/junior guy
- Did this for about 1.5 weeks
- After the above, someone (usually the owner's wife) would say something like: "Instead of Alex doing grunt work, why doesn't he helps us <fix technology thing>"
And that ranged from "order us a new computer" to "fix the North American Controls lumber sorter machine".
My point is:
Being able to solve complex problems is a surprisingly transferable skill. It's so transferable that even in the trades, if you can solve those problems, people will identify it and rapidly move you to the most complex problems they have.
Ok but now you’re not actually doing the trade work. When I was a machinist, if someone asked me to fix their computer, I’m no longer a machinist. And you can’t just become a machinist because you can solve complex problems, you need specific training.
Producing something like a turner's cube or a captive nut requires skills. Coming up with a way to produce them requires an ability to solve complex problems and think in non-obvious ways. But these are well-known puzzle objects. Being able to produce something tricky but novel, applicable to a problem at hand, definitely sets apart a high-class machinist.
'The IT guy who thought he could fix the 3 million dollar sortation skid' is such a common trope amount people who actually know what they're doing that it's funny to see you casually drop it here as evidence of ... I'm not sure what.
Just had a dedicated 120v 20 A circuit installed. I was clear that I worked on complex systems but fully respected what a trade person could do. It’s easy to look at his work after the fact and say “I could have done that” but it’s fully to code and wife is happy.
Now on to my plumbing issue. I’m calling a plumber.
If you scratch the wire while pealing of the insulation it looks the same now but it might burn down the house later.
Edit: or more fun, if you twist the end of a flexible wire (so that you can stick it into a clamp easier) the little threads cut each other while tightening it and wiggling the cable breaks them. It's like a person can stand on your hand without pain but if you cross your fingers first....
While true the right solution is not "invent 100 different wire termination methods including disparate crimping solutions each with disparate crimping tools" and yet that's what we have... each of which is a pain to source, and generally expensive. It's no wonder there are errors. Do not under any circumstances design a new bare wire crimp, termination or connector standard.
Indeed, university educations go with you everywhere, they're one of the few stores of big wealth that cannot be seized at a border.
Whereas, okay, the whole reason we are paying electricians so much is because unions in California and New York, where real estate is the largest and second largest economic sector, prevent you from doing almost exactly that: transferring a prefabricated piece of a building from China across a border with all the work built into it, same as everything else.
You can split hairs on my metaphor here but don't miss the point. There's no scarcity of labor to correctly install safe wires, whether it is in datacenters or homes or electronics, nor scarcity of innovations in logistics or whatever to transfer that labor from places where it is cheap to places that need to build. It's all guild feuds.
Better than the nincompoops my landlord sends out to "fix" stuff. Better than trying to get someone to fix anything at all in San Francisco.
The truth is I would rather choose from 100 varied vendors - if prefab were permitted in San Francisco, you would be able to buy it from anyone - than to be forced to endure the shitty alternative of simply unpermitted work, or the kind of work that my lunatic licensed electrician neighbor does, which has burned down just as many walls as in your total hypothetical that has never happened.
RFK Jr spent a bunch of time lambasting how less American children needed to go to university these days and focus on getting a job, buying a home, starting a family (hah).
Somewhere in amongst those posts, his wife posted some selfies of them at their kids' Harvard graduation.
They very much want the Eloi and the Morlock, and are counting on law enforcement/military/ICE to keep the Morlock in check. "My kids need to go to college, yours need to learn how to fix their cars and build them new homes."
You were lucky then. I know highly intelligent people who worked in the trades who were stuck doing grunt work for a long time, not because they weren't capable, but because they didn't have the right connections. Of course white collar jobs can have the same problem.
Being personable and having good to great communication skills is a prerequisite for almost everything. The software and hardware engineering fields have largely had a free pass on this historically because supply was so low.
How do you define "Great communication skills"? Is it replying to emails quickly, using a lot of exclamation points in your replies, being a clear thinker and having good ideas, or just being friendly and docile?
It is using words to accomplish goals. Get shit done.
The exact formula will change depending on the scenario. Maybe it is a prompt email, maybe it is getting a beer and giving someone a pieceof your mind. Most important, it is knowing when to do which one.
My working life has always been exactly like this. I'm not sure why, but I always tried to avoid doing tech for a living. Grew up in construction, joined the military, when I got out I was just going to follow in Dad's footsteps and went to finish my journeyman as an electrician. But as the company was growing, the technical and managerial skills were harder to come by and they wanted me to give it a shot. A similar cycle kept happening in every position I've held - facilities management, stationary engineering... once my technical skillset was realized, both the skillset and it's direct skills (development, etc) and the problem solving skills were asked of me to be utilized.
With that, never having a reason to intrinsically develop that sense of solving complex problems is one of the biggest heartbreaks to come along with AI.
alexpotato · · focus · HN ↗
Invariably, the following happened:
- I was given grunt work as a I was the new/junior guy
- Did this for about 1.5 weeks
- After the above, someone (usually the owner's wife) would say something like: "Instead of Alex doing grunt work, why doesn't he helps us <fix technology thing>"
And that ranged from "order us a new computer" to "fix the North American Controls lumber sorter machine".
My point is: Being able to solve complex problems is a surprisingly transferable skill. It's so transferable that even in the trades, if you can solve those problems, people will identify it and rapidly move you to the most complex problems they have.
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Edit: or more fun, if you twist the end of a flexible wire (so that you can stick it into a clamp easier) the little threads cut each other while tightening it and wiggling the cable breaks them. It's like a person can stand on your hand without pain but if you cross your fingers first....
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doctorpangloss · · focus · HN ↗
You can split hairs on my metaphor here but don't miss the point. There's no scarcity of labor to correctly install safe wires, whether it is in datacenters or homes or electronics, nor scarcity of innovations in logistics or whatever to transfer that labor from places where it is cheap to places that need to build. It's all guild feuds.
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willy_k · · focus · HN ↗
There’s a lot more to it than laying wires, and the union has negotiating power for good reason.
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doctorpangloss · · focus · HN ↗
The truth is I would rather choose from 100 varied vendors - if prefab were permitted in San Francisco, you would be able to buy it from anyone - than to be forced to endure the shitty alternative of simply unpermitted work, or the kind of work that my lunatic licensed electrician neighbor does, which has burned down just as many walls as in your total hypothetical that has never happened.
FireBeyond · · focus · HN ↗
Somewhere in amongst those posts, his wife posted some selfies of them at their kids' Harvard graduation.
They very much want the Eloi and the Morlock, and are counting on law enforcement/military/ICE to keep the Morlock in check. "My kids need to go to college, yours need to learn how to fix their cars and build them new homes."
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s1artibartfast · · focus · HN ↗
The exact formula will change depending on the scenario. Maybe it is a prompt email, maybe it is getting a beer and giving someone a pieceof your mind. Most important, it is knowing when to do which one.
sublinear · · focus · HN ↗
You seem to believe it's all about pleasing people and you seem to assume that everyone has a much bigger ego than they really do.
I would instantly hate working with anyone who tries the shit you're thinking of. That's untrustworthy behavior.
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camcil · · focus · HN ↗
With that, never having a reason to intrinsically develop that sense of solving complex problems is one of the biggest heartbreaks to come along with AI.
alexpotato · · focus · HN ↗
This is another good point:
being good at solving problems is different than being good at a specific technical skill.
e.g. there is a reason patio11 has his "don't call yourself a programmer" [0] post.
0 - <a href="https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/" rel="nofollow">https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr...