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Comment by yojo | Hacker News Reader

This. My dad is a contractor. I’ve been taking some time off SWE work to try to learn some of what he knows while he can still do it. It is just hard on my body, half the days I wake up with the wrong kind of pain. Hanging drywall, digging post holes, sanding, painting, laying tile, etc. So much of the work is an ergonomic nightmare.

I think it’s not as bad in single family construction as commercial work, since the activity varies more over the day/week. But still, I can’t imagine my body not breaking if I did this for a career.

OTOH electrical work seems mostly reasonable. If one of my kids wanted to get into a trade that’s where I’d steer them.

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Not diminishing the degree to which it can hurt your body long term - it absolutely can. That being said, most people that do that kind of work as a career start it as a job when they're 16-18 years old, and are typically active (sports, etc.) for many many years before that.

You're starting it at best in your mid-to-late twenties? And even if you played sports in HS and go to the gym regularly, your body just isn't used to it and it's past the point where it can quickly adapt and more importantly get used to the stimulus. You're likely much more prone to injury than someone fifteen years older than you whose been doing that work since they were 17 (I'm sure I am too, it would destroy and I am very active for a SWE).

Yes and no. I don't know of any exercise that would compare to sanding a wall, for example. It's not exactly an activity you would want to be doing for a long stretch of time. No matter how fit you are, construction work isn't like you're getting paid to go to the gym.

Fair. I’m late 30s, my dad is 74 and can work circles around me. He definitely started manual labor young. I did some of it in high school but have been behind a desk since college.

I do consider myself very fit/active, but it’s not the strength or stamina that’s the limiting factor, it’s the holding weight at weird angles, or applying torque, or just reaching out over my center of mass for hours.

Anecdotally it seems like the specialists have it worst. His friends who did flooring all have wrecked knees, and the drywall hangers have messed up shoulders. He seems to have made it out unscathed, though other generalists he knows have back problems.

I think even in single family construction, it is often the case that people specialize and the work can be quite repetitive. We had some drywall work done, notably finishing a portion of our basement. Hanging the drywall, followed by taping and mudding, followed by painting. All were done by different people, probably with different pay scales and expectations of working conditions.

I've had people come to my house to do handyman work, and at the same age as me, they are hobbling and broken.

I suspect that one of the causes of the opioid crisis is that we had a pain crisis, caused by bad working conditions. I could imagine advising one of my kids to go into the trades, but only if they move to a country with decent labor laws, safety net, and health care. Not in the US.

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