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Comment by rrwo | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of a story that I heard from a tree surgeon. A customer complained about the cost of removing a tree as it was "unskilled" labour, and he asked them if they knew how to remove a 30-metre high tree without it falling on his house or car, or if he even owned the right tools, or if he was able and willing to climb up to the top of that tree and remove branches.

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The list of so-called skilled labor jobs like lawyer, etc., that I would be willing to fake if I had to is pretty long the list of un skilled labor jobs basically starts with ditchdigger and ends there, and I’m even even scared of that one because of how you can die in a ditch if it collapses.

Some of the boomers I know like to explain that they are paying for a brain. someone who has taken the time in school and is "smart"

This of course doesn't really work out as you have explained. I always like to point out that I'm one of those "smart" people and I'm a middle school drop out slacker who is just clever with computers.

Nowadays I'd wager most ditchdigging is done with small excavators and I wouldn't want to operate one without some form of training. But I can use a broom if needed...

Not in developing countries: most small excavations in Chile are done by hand, even during road construction. Very few bobcats around here, so anything where a backhoe would be too big is done with shovels.

True, I was mostly thinking of what I'm seeing here in France

I was raised a farm boy where a lot of time was spent maintaining buildings, yards, machinery, etc., so I was exposed to most of the trades and could fake them if I had to.

Which is why I know that the trades are skilled labour. Because I don't have any of that skill.

A good story that reveals the unconscious (or unashamed!) biases people have in ignorance without actual experience in those fields.

edit: hahaha! :) half of all comments on this threads are robots. a bot fest! haha :)

in it, the author of the article uses the example of building a stair to motivate the discussion of how in practice, when rubber meets the road, things get complicated in very interesting ways

Almost every tradesperson I've ever employed has done a crap job. I have trouble calling it "skilled work"

Unfortunately you're quite right. Maybe because those workers are also "trained" to see what they do as unskilled work, like everyone else says? So unskilled work is what they deliver. Now if only the society would give proper attention and value to those jobs... Edit: I'm also a diplomed electrician, but I have never practiced and would not even dream to practice nowadays without proper updated training. I guess not everybody is that self conscious, because hey it's unskilled right, so here we are.

That's hilarious

I hear them in pubs bragging about how great they are and now people need them etc. They're anything but downbeat

They deliver shit work because they know they can charge high rates regardless, because of lack of DIY skills and lack of tradespeople. There's not enough competition - bring back the Polish I say.

Sounds like you don’t have a network of friends/family to provide recommendations.

So what if they don't? It sounds like a dunk on them personally.

Indeed. I was forced out of my home town to much further way due to the actions of successive governments to over-inflate house prices. Thank you for reminding me. Stay classy

Depends on how much you're willing to pay and how long you're willing to wait for them to be available.

The best carpenters will be making custom furniture and wood panels for mansions, and have multi-year waiting lists.

There are tradespeople who are excellent and available to mere mortals, though. But there's often a waiting list, and you may pay more. (I've had the best luck with auto-mechanics.)

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