I started programming computers when I was very young. Because of the skills I developed, and because of some connections I had, I got a very high paying job in the data processing department of the Livermore School District while I was still a junior in high school. (I was on independent study at the time.) I literally made more money than I knew what to do with, unfortunately.
A couple of years later, I had been talking to a girl online, who lived in Florida. We met a few times. I've never been all that good at the relationship thing, so this seemed important to me at the time, so I moved to Florida. Shortly after getting there, I learned Oracle PL/SQL and another language I can't remember any more in the course of a few days to get a job at Ceridian Benefits Services; in time I became one of their lead techs with a path into their software development department. Again, more money than I knew what to do with.
After about a year of this though, things weren't working out, and there was a part of me that felt starved. It was the part that enjoyed hiking, enjoyed being outside, enjoyed being fit and in good physical health. I also had a strong feeling that everything up to this point had been too easy for me, that I wasn't getting as much out of life as I wanted to.
So I quit.
I moved back to California and resolved to spend the next few years starting over, completely from scratch; I wanted to take the hardest possible path through life for the next few years. (Boy, I had no idea what I was in for.)
I got into rock climbing, and then got a job as a climbing instructor. I had the opportunity, through my style, personality, will, and determination, to influence people around me. I made a lot of friends, many of whom I'm still friends with. I got to feed the outdoor side of my personality for a while. The job didn't pay much though, and eventually I fled, in debt, to a job in the retail part of the outdoor industry, in another part of the state.
During this time I didn't use computers, unless it was as a cash register or inventory system. For a period of a couple of years, I was completely disconnected from the internet, computers, toys, and gadgets. I learned how to fix cars, I chased sheep down the street, I climbed a lot, and I wandered around.
I'm back in computers now, obviously. It took me only about a year to catch up to the changes in the industry, and I'm one of the leading consultants in my area now, with a successful business of my own.
But, I'm really, really, really glad I took that road. It taught me so much that I couldn't have learned by staying behind a computer desk all day long. It taught me how to relate to people, for one. It taught me how to maintain some balance in my life, and how to pay attention to the needs of my spirit. (My girlfriend, who's reading this over my shoulder -- she's really patient with my need to hear myself talk! -- is reminding me that it's also how I met her, which is probably the best part of all. :-)
So my main point, in so much as I have one, is that abandoning your core skill in an area, and putting yourself in over your head for a while, can lead to some really valuable experiences. You don't need to worry about whether or not you'll still be able to get back in later, or re-acquire old skills; they'll come back, in time. Don't worry about that at all.
The topic of relating to people always fascinates me. Would you say it is more about not facts but sharing feelings? What would you want to tell and teach your future son or daughter about relating to others? Thanks in advance.
OK, so, I've always been kinda cerebral, so communicating with people was something I had to "figure out". I'm not so much that way any more, but I do remember most of what I did to learn it.
It's definitely more about feelings than facts -- purely factual statements make a lot of people turn off to you -- but it's also about empathy. Not a new-age touchy-feely kind of empathy, but merely the ability to quickly understand the other person's habits, backgrounds, emotions, and personality. Think of it as learning to communicate in a different language, like speaking Russian to a Russian.
I studied some psychology, and although on the whole I think it was not terribly valuable, it did help me typecast people a little bit faster. For example, I tend to notice whether a person talks about what they think, or what they feel. If they say that they feel like x or y is right or wrong, then they're talking from an intuitive, emotional standpoint, and being all cerebral around them isn't going to get you very far.
There's also body language, the kinds of jokes a person tells, the sorts of phrases they use, and the dialect of language they use. I don't for example talk to boulderers the same way I'm talking now ... unless I want them to laugh at me. :-)
It started out as something I had to think about and study, but now it's intuitive and I don't think of it the same way anymore. It's just something I do.
I think this is a really valuable thing for other people to do; it would help communication between people a lot. There would be fewer misunderstandings.
Or, as my much-more-personable-and-outgoing girlfriend who again is reading over my shoulder says, "Well, yeah, it teaches you how to listen."
Guess I still have a lot more to learn.
17: data processing department; 19: florida; 20: quit; 22: returned to computers ?
what phase of the industry did all of this happen in? it seems like you've managed without a college degree?
17 (almost 18): data processing department, starting in 1996; 20: Florida, in Summer 1999; quit almost exactly a year later, at 21; got my first computer job again at 25, in 2004. So it was actually a 4-year gap (!).
I left the computer industry just months before the big dot-com crash, but I was really burned out by then, and predicted the crash anyway. (IPOs had gotten completely out of control.)
And no, I don't have a college degree or much in the way of a college education at all, unfortunately. I'm really not proud of that, but I haven't been disciplined enough for college until more recently, and now I'm too busy and have other goals. I would never brag to anyone that "I've gotten this far without a college degree"; I'm not fond of that trend these days, and I do think that having at least some college education is very important.
Part of the misfortune with making money early on is that I never learned how to manage it, or save it, so I had no savings within a few months of leaving Florida. Having savings would have made a lot of the struggle much easier, but I don't think I would have learned as much, either.
I honestly would not say I have "immense talent"; that makes me kinda uncomfortable, actually. I'd say I have average talent, and immense determination, if anything.
Is it really מecessary to drop everything? If so why?
It was necessary for me, though.
I average about 45 hours a week, with no more than 35 from the office. I ride my bike to and from the office, spend most weekends outside either climbing or riding my bike, and spend the warmer evenings with my family in the backyard. Oh, and I just got back from a one month road trip.
Certainly, I've put in some long days (this is not limited to sedentary labor--ever talked to a farmer?), but these are almost always offset by flexible schedules and comp time. I suggest, perhaps, if you like programming, that you look for another gig.
None of those problems seem to be because you don't live in a forest. They will not magically disappear even if you did live in a forest.
Sure personally he feels less obligation, but it just seems like eventually that will catch up with him, i know it would to me... especially for someone who professes to love the outdoors, and then contributes to its destruction. The motivation is a little hypocritical...
Considering that the lumber industry gets the bulk of their wood from farms and tracts that are continusouly replanted, they aren't cutting down old growth forests like "the old says". Compared to aluminum or steel, wood frame construction is fairly renewable and to be encouraged.
Google is creating new products and services that increase demand for energy. Everything they do requires more computers sucking up power, more devices to be made with crazy materials in them etc.
That's because there are none left. Check out the maps over time here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-growth_forest#Importance
"the lumber industry gets the bulk of their wood from farms and tracts that are continusouly replanted"
I believe most commercial logging is clear cut. This is devastating to not only trees, but soil, animals, watersheds, migratory birds, and who knows what else down the line.
We need wood, so we have a lumber industry that grows trees and cuts them down. But don't think for a second that replanting a clear cut wasteland with monoculture seedlings is in any way "renewable" or "encouraged".
If you have any doubt about the effectiveness of replanting, zoom in and around British Columbia with google maps. What appears to be a massive unbroken forest is actually riddled with clearcuts.
The argument about wood as a good renewable building material is a good one, however, not getting the "bulk" and not getting most are two completely different things, and the world really needs to get on a renewable system fast.
Also, while in a lot of places you will find reference to there being zero net change in the amount of trees being cut down, the fact of the matter is that a lot of old growth forest is still being destroyed.
This reasonable looking article: http://ecology.com/features/paperchase/, says that 9% of wood for paper is taken from old growth forests.
Here is another place that lays it out in a graph: http://www.greenfacts.org/en/forests/figtableboxes/figure-2-.... http://www.greenfacts.org/en/forests/.
After reading the IAMA more closely, I think that I was wrong in my initial assessment of him, he is doing it because he want the exercise, and is still participating in more "real" projects on the side in a less stressful setting, which is cool. My real point was that it would be really easy to do something like this, thinking that it would be great, and then realizing some time later that you were part of something that you really didn't like on principle.
Also, what happens if you get injured on the job?
Muscles grow faster than hacking skills. And if you're used to hacking skills, you probably find a way to do it better and safer.
Also, what happens if you get injured on the job?
What happens if you subject your body to sitting 100 hours a week in front of a computer for decades?
We haven't sat at desks long enough to affect us as species. You've got everything you need to be a hunter-gatherer or a farmer apart from the skills.
And I don't recall any hunter-gather tribe that had those.
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/shop-class-as-sou...
One thing to note: Crawford is a motorcycle repairman, but he's still a knowledge worker to some extent. And, of course, the book length treatment of the subject was subsidized by a university.
My feeling is he probably gave up too early on finding a way to integrate money making and his passion. Maybe this works best for him though.
From the AMA : "Now I've moved into to the lumbering industry and this has to be the best choice I've ever made. I kind of think of my job as a paid workout and I get to hack on OSS in my free time; After all I do have a passion for software development and I'm deeply involved in various OSS communities."
He says "However the programming industry is a lot of stress. I am not cut out for the stress and seemingly arbitrary deadlines."
He tried the absolute default plan: Get CS degree and work at $MEGA_CORP. He didn't like it, so he gave up the idea entirely. He could instead have tried creating his own custom plan. It's totally possible, especially if you're willing to take a 50% pay cut.
My story is quite the reverse. I grew up on a dryland wheat farm in Montana. Nature has a way of enforcing its own deadlines. There, you are never not aware of the issue facing you, hail, no rain, early fall, short crops. Software deadlines seemed to pale in comparison.
