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Comment by moffkalast | Hacker News Reader

Every programmer eventually becomes a woodworker, whether they like it or not.

"Sorry I missed your comment of many months ago. I no longer build software; I now make furniture out of wood. The hours are long, the pay sucks, and there's always the opportunity to remove my finger with a table saw, but nobody asks me if I can add an RSS feed to a DBMS, so there's that :-)"

Wood does not suddenly change its weight by 10000% in the middle of a project.

I had a colleague leave to become a carpenter, then return after a few years when they realised that it's hard physical work that can be bad for your lungs.

Haha, are you suggesting all products eventually break and we resort to solving problems with small hand-crafted turing machines made of sticks?

Well I'm not saying that the most satisfying way to bash a server isn't with a meticulously lathed bat.

Apparently a lot of us also like really old books?

(mmmm 1910 manual on steel production.)

Wait, can you link to that?

(this comment to be replaced by a link or other information as soon as I remember to put the book in my hand when I'm next standing near it)

Finally remembered!

It's a copy of this: https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/books/CompositionandHeatTr...

Mine is a dark red hardback, printed by McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1911.

Seriously?

I mean, I have a collection of very old engineering books, including one on Petroleum Refinery Engineering and a Reinforced Concrete Design Handbook printed when text books where $2. But I had no idea this was a "thing" among developers.

Apparently. I went into the Last Bookstore in Los Angeles, found that manual, and... had to have it. Didn't understand why. Mentioned that to the clerk, who said: "You're a software developer, aren't you? A lot of you have that reaction."

So, very very anecdotally: yep it's a thing.

If this is a joke, it's gone over my head. What are you saying?

Woodworking is a popular hobby with developers; at some level at least they're both about creating things.

The "eventually" part is a nod towards retirement and then joking not having a choice.

From what I heard back during the dot com bust bartending was somewhat similar. Perhaps these days it'd be mixology, or attempting to become a sommelier.

I enjoy woodworking because it's something I can do with my hands that has a definite beginning and end, unlike most software which is often never really done. I find the completion of these whole projects very cathartic.

I think I've heard this exact response from other developers who turned to wood working. It's a common plus side.

I like the fact that it produces something tangible and (hopefully) long lasting. None of the systems I've set up between 2000-2015 are still alive; so much time and effort lost.

> Woodworking is a popular hobby with developers

huh? TIL.

Most devs I know live in condos and have no chance of having a place to do woodworking.

Maybe it's a regional thing.

Might be an age thing. I started doing it in my 30s, and we have a diy channel in slack that's pretty active with wood workers. And I know of at least one famous YT wood worker that used to be a developer.

It intersects well with 3d printing and CNC stuff.

In case anyone needs additional context:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24541964

Funny story - a good friend who was doing high-end cabinetry lost a finger to a table saw, so he boned up on his coding skills and got a great job in the film FX business.

Some of them become blacksmiths as I recently learned.

Wonder how hard it is to get started with glassblowing

The late Ezra Zygmuntowicz was a glassblower by training and trade long before starting Engineyard.

You should visit the coast of Maine this summer and find out: https://www.haystack-mtn.org/

As a hobbyist? Not hard at all! If you're in a medium/large city, there's almost certainly one or two glassblowing studios around that have classes. As a career? That's a whole lot harder.

If you aren't a homeowner the facilities are the hard part. Need a large space where you can have a glass furnace and concrete floors that won't get damaged by molten glass. Lampworking is easier to get started in, but still need a place to run a torch (ideally with a vent hood) and store oxygen/propane cylinders.

Definitely go to a glassblowing camp if you are interested. If you have prior experience trying to control a fluid medium, like pottery for example, then that may help. In order to set up your own shop you'll want to be somewhere with low fuel costs.

Totally. As a software engineer, I own an anvil. Smashing things with a hammer is very cathartic.

I worked with one developer who became a master electrician. He was experienced and intelligent but obviously burnt out on software. And he sure seemed happier when I ran into him a couple years after making that career transition.

My uncle who had a nice very senior eng job ago dipped out and walked into a plumber shop saw the help wanted sign in the window and they hired him on the spot. He then did that for 25 years until he retired. He said it was nice that the jobs were short and the outcome was usually very predictable but gross on many occasions.

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