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Comment by MisterTea | Hacker News Reader

Because it's akin to slum tourism. The article appears to be written by a well to do author who takes on a hard blue collar job for a very short period of time. They then write about the unique and whimsical experience. We get treated to a cozy story about picturesque fishing villages as viewed through rose colored glasses.

Meanwhile the work is hard, dirty and dangerous for the people who do this for a living in order to survive day to day. The author gets to go back to their well to do life on a family owned island while the fishermen continue to toil at sea.

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The slum tourism point is a good one to keep in mind but you’re a little unfair to the fishermen here. There are many fishermen who choose the life because it’s what they love. They aren’t toiling away in the mines to put a scrap of bread on the table—they’re out on the water, working in their community, captaining their own boat and doing work that is strenuous but fulfilling.

Indeed, the author writes of the captain she worked for:

> Originally from Connecticut, she worked one summer on a whale-watching boat in Bar Harbor, saw the lobstermen, and thought: I want to do that, that looks real.

The unique and whimsical experiences seem to be a feature for her boat captain too, so that seems a little unfair.

And yes, the author does get to go back to her "well to do life", but she does not downplay the hardness, dirt or danger of this work.

Your position seems to suggest that you can't write about the sorts of things the author wanted to write about - the intersections between loneliness, isolation, community, friendship and work - unless you're not well-to-do and spend years or even a lifetime in a job.

I reject that perspective.

I get where you're coming from, and this past decade has certainly been a masterclass in cynicism, but maybe take a step back.

Yes, the author is well-to-do, born to academic parents, through no fault of her own. What obligations does she have by virtue of that? Is the rule you propose that she should be prohibited from ever taking a blue collar job? Or only if she does so for a sufficiently long time?

Would the world or her perspective on it be improved if instead of spending her summer on a lobster boat she had spent it working at Starbucks?

Or is it just that she should be able to do these things but be prohibited from writing about them and sharing that? Would we be better off if we hadn't read this?

Sure, maybe she's viewing this through rose-colored glasses. But those are her glasses and that is her authentic perspective. Doesn't she have the right to experience it and share it? Or does one need to be born into a certain level of misery and poverty before they earn the right to write?

for a very rough analogy, consider how programming (especially hacking) is portrayed in popular film/tv. usually it looks very little like what we actually do all day. it's not wrong per se (in the moral sense); it's just what people do to make entertaining content with a reasonable scope. at the same time, it's kind of a slap in the face to see this kind of content and realize that the makers either do not care enough about what we do to portray it accurately, or worse, they do understand and deliberately portray it differently because it would be boring for the audience otherwise.

it's a vaguely similar sort of problem with this type of article. the author probably didn't harm anyone by taking a quick stint on a fishing boat. I don't think writing and publishing the article harms anyone either. but at the same time it raises uncomfortable questions. would someone who makes their livelihood from fishing choose to write this sort of article? if they did, would they have an audience?

> consider how programming (especially hacking) is portrayed in popular film/tv. usually it looks very little like what we actually do all day

That's because what we do would genuinely be boring to watch in a tv show or movie. I can think of exactly one time in my 12ish year career where a co-worker actively fought a malicious actor, and that was more entertaining than anything.

This is true of most jobs, present and past. Ever see a soldier or warrior with a sword strapped on their back and draw it out to do battle? Yeah, thats not a thing. It looks cool, but is physically impossible to do smoothly or single handedly with all but the shortest of swords.

Similar things can be said of archers, peasants, gypsies, police, journalists, etc.

While I am on a rant, the term "bohemian" when used for artistic hippy types is blatantly racist, and we have ignorant young French aristocrats to thank for it, but nobody actually cares.

Would a fisherman write such an article? No, because the article was about a transformative experience which defied expectations. A fisherman who has done naught else is not likely to have the same experience, but that doesnt change what the author did experience.

I don't see what is uncomfortable about that at all. /end long winded meandering rant that probably missed the point

I don't think your analogy holds up very well.

A more direct one would be if some liberal arts major did a coding bootcamp and wrote about their experience. I wouldn't be morally offended that they shared their small window into programming with the world. Sure, it would be limited in many ways and colored by their own biases. But the latter makes it more interesting.

I already know what programming is like for "real" programmers. Seeing what programming is like for someone outside of that tribe is actually pretty interesting.

>Would the world or her perspective on it be improved if instead of spending her summer on a lobster boat she had spent it working at Starbucks?

I think the world would be a much better place if everyone (or at least everyone in America) had to spend at least 6 months in a minimum wage customer service job. If that were the case you'd hope we'd have far less entitled customers abusing workers who don't deserve any such treatment.

This is not to say that a summer on a lobster ship is worthless, but your choice of example is poor - yes, I do honestly believe that a summer at Starbucks seeing people on their worst behavior could do more to shape perspective than a summer of manual labor in relative isolation.

Maybe that wasn't the best example, because if the author had done that and written an article about it, she'll still be accused of slumming.

Perhaps a better example would be her just lazing around her parents' houses.

People wanting another view of industrial fishing may be interested in this 1940s film from the UK about "drifting" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q76BDaWRsjs

No, she said it was a populated island, I’ll bet it was Peak’s. Lots of people live there, lots of lobster fishermen, real estate is a bit expensive but not California expensive and they have a little school house.

Cost of living is getting there though :(. Our Maine neighbors of lobstermen and other solidly middle class vacationers are being displaced by doctors and lawyers. Complete with stupid pissing contests between old vs new residents.

This year has all new problems though: Some people drove straight up from Florida and Texas then dropped by to chat within hours. What the bleeping bleep is wrong with you? Why are you here?!

Yeah it’s true, the back side of the island is all McMansions, we were thinking about moving there in 2014 but I haven’t checked prices since then.

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