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Comment by Isamu | Hacker News Reader

Engineering is gross? Or the idea of promoting engineering is gross? Please explain.

Engineering was my ticket for my transition from farm boy to lifelong steady employment with good pay and benefits.

I chose the engineering path because I like to build things, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do that as a career.

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The idea that a kid can't play without some tangible end goal of employment is what's gross. Not the activity, or the underlying discipline (engineering, in this case).

A kid will eventually need a job and it's the opposite of gross for them to turn a childhood hobby into a career.

Much more gross to end up doing something they don't like because they never got to try it out...

And after being exposed, deciding they enjoy it, but would rather make a living elsewhere -- does that mean the hobby was a failure?

There's nothing wrong with turning something into a career, but turning every action into career chasing is saddening. It's pretty gross to leave kids thinking they can't just enjoy something without juicing it for cash.

> And after being exposed, deciding they enjoy it, but would rather make a living elsewhere -- does that mean the hobby was a failure?

If they try a hobby for a while and give up on it because they don't enjoy it enough, then yes. That seems like a reasonable definition for "failure."

Nothing wrong with failing - in your career, hobbies, relationships, or whatever else. Sometimes EQ means recognizing that you should stop beating a dead horse.

Man I agree whole heartedly. Failure is a part of life, embrace it. There is no shame, you'll eventually find something you do enjoy.

There's more to life than a career.

Yes, and us adults also struggle with this. Look at hustle culture where every hobby is turned into some money making side gig. You like painting? Why isn’t your art on Etsy? Like working out? Become a personal trainer. Make an app for yourself / friends? How you going to monetize or add ads? It’s okay to enjoy hobbies without a profit seeking motive.

You missed the point, it has nothing to do with careers specifically. It’s that it doesn’t encourage engineering at all, which is why it doesn’t result in engineering careers.

Since such a sentiment was never expressed here, your comment is a non-sequitur.

I suppose you're right. And in a similar vein, the problem with toasting s'mores around a campfire is that while kids like it a lot, it doesn't necessarily translate to park ranger careers.

We should really reform camping to optimize the career funnel.

Not op but I interpreted the gross part to be the idea engineering is the end all be all of careers and more importantly can't simply just be a creative outlet for some folks.

they are saying the idea that any get-together should be a working formula mostly for preparing kids for work instead of being who they want to be, is gross. I mostly agree.

> Engineering is gross? Or the idea of promoting engineering is gross? Please explain.

Huh? I can't think of a more disingenuous interpretation of GP's comment.

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