4mo ago

Anon takes the welding pill

56 comments

$82k
Sorry anon I make about 50% more sitting behind a desk and playing Lego with web services
- I literally started learning how to program like months before the whole "AI will take your job on an by the way we don't hire JR devs anymore" so I gave up on it...
  I just got to the point where I could consider buying a house months before COVID.
  I had thought about joining the military to learn some skills for "free" and graduated highschool exactly when Bush decided Iraq needed to be invaded for ~~oil~~ God knows what reason. Even as a dumb 17 year old I saw right through that and said fuck no.
  I completed a trade school 4 months before "the great recession."
  If God existed he would be Lucy holding a fucking football and I'm Charlie Brown...
  
  tell me about your next move?
  
  Becoming a programmer isn't the gold rush free money wild ride it used to be, but programming skills are 100% still in demand. Lots of companies are pretending that they don't need juniors because something something AI, but that's transient-- Either a) the AI bubble is going to collapse, or b) roles and skillsets are going to shift around until they settle into a new paradigm.
  That paradigm might have juniors just like before, or it might look like hybrid "people who code" roles that aren't like traditional full-time developers.
  In any case, there's still tons of value in learning to code, and I think it's worth sticking to if you like it.
  If you don't particularly like it though, then yeah just bail. The skillset will still be handy, but the career path might be a little unstable for a few years.
  
  Ai bubble won't last. Stick with it my friend. Will agree though its still not a free ride. The job market recently can be rocky especially if you aren't better than average at coding. Suppose the rest of the job market isn't faring fabulously though either
- Welding sounds 50% nicer though. Problem solving, but not head-breaking problems that follow you night and day for weeks on end. And after a project you have a tangible result that is actually generating some kind of value.
  When's the last time a web service Lego ever did anything but been a financial black hole for VC funding that actually fails to deliver anything of value to society?
  Damn it, I think my cynicism dial got stuck again. Time for bedge.
- He's probably driving around in rural areas though. What's the cost of living at your place? Not Silicon Valley, I hope?
  
  Wherever you feel like living + internet. Most of the IT career fields don't need to be in a physical office unless things go catastrophically wrong.

It reads as the background story of the enemy "The Welder" in a horror video game that you would find through scattered notes.
- Sounds like weak-ass version of Dogwelder to me.
  
  Dogwelder welds dogs to people.
  I mean, at least he's aptly named 🤷😄
- Sounds like it's up the Amnesia series's alley. Victims are all welded inside a box while alive, and left to die.
  
  I finished Outlast recently, and it made me think about The Groom who mutilates male patients' sexual attributes to turn them into his ideal wife, but keeps failing and trying again.

one of the highest workers in demand
A lot of workers are in higher demand, but most of them don't smoke anywhere near as much weed at work.
- That's probably why he's not getting paid much. That kind if skilled work is easily in excess of 100k/year
  
  Mostly depends on if you want to do shift work. If you do, easy in most places.

You have to do your work outside and either standing or kneeling, and it gets hot as hell because of the heat of the welding. Sometimes you're in vessels. It seems miserable. 82K isn't even that much money for the work, in my opinion. Specialty workers can make more but still...
- Not to mention 82k isnt the average. There's plenty of work inside but it's still loud, dirty, construction air nasty eating packed lunches on a bucket bullshit. Trade jobs can make you great money... huge caveat being it's only when you're working for yourself.

welding > wedding
- Webster's dictionary defines wedding as "the fusing of two metals with a hot torch."
  
  that's quite perfect ^^
  in German they use the word for assembling 2 big mechanical parts together, like the carriage and the body of a car
  
  And do you, Phyllis, take Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration, to be your lawfully wedded husband?

Doesn't welding fuck up your eyesight when you get older? Maybe that's why it's in demand?
- Only if you don't use proper shields.
  
  For real. The number of times I've seen people "weld" without proper eyewear is ridiculous. Mainly "street" techs or "friends" doing work for a quick buck. The ONE I saw recently using PPE was a corporate worker fixing a ladder in a retail store.
- And give you a higher chance of getting Parkinson's from the manganese in the welding fumes.
  
  Only if you don't wear a respirator to filter that shit
  
  Just looked it up and N95-P100 masks/respirators cover most exposure that welding should create. I’m a hobbyist welder, but wear a P100 respirator 95% if the time (100% indoors).
  From NIOSH:
  RESPIRATOR RECOMMENDATIONS
  NIOSH
  Up to 10 mg/m3:
  \ (APF = 10) Any particulate respirator equipped with an N95, R95, or P95 filter (including N95, R95, and P95 filtering facepieces) except quarter-mask respirators. The following filters may also be used: N99, R99, P99, N100, R100, P100.
  \ Click here for information on selection of N, R, or P filters.
  \ (APF = 10) Any supplied-air respirator
  Up to 25 mg/m3:
  \ (APF = 25) Any supplied-air respirator operated in a continuous-flow mode
  \ (APF = 25) Any powered, air-purifying respirator with a high-efficiency particulate filter.
  Up to 50 mg/m3:
  \ (APF = 50) Any air-purifying, full-facepiece respirator with an N100, R100, or P100 filter.
  \ Click here for information on selection of N, R, or P filters.
  (APF = 50) Any supplied-air respirator that has a tight-fitting facepiece and is operated in a continuous-flow mode
  \ (APF = 50) Any powered, air-purifying respirator with a tight-fitting facepiece and a high-efficiency particulate filter
  \ (APF = 50) Any self-contained breathing apparatus with a full facepiece
  \ (APF = 50) Any supplied-air respirator with a full facepiece
  Up to 500 mg/m3:
  \ (APF = 1000) Any supplied-air respirator operated in a pressure-demand or other positive-pressure mode
  Emergency or planned entry into unknown concentrations or IDLH conditions:
  \ (APF = 10,000) Any self-contained breathing apparatus that has a full facepiece and is operated in a pressure-demand or other positive-pressure mode
  \ (APF = 10,000) Any supplied-air respirator that has a full facepiece and is operated in a pressure-demand or other positive-pressure mode in combination with an auxiliary self-contained positive-pressure breathing apparatus
  Escape:
  \ (APF = 50) Any air-purifying, full-facepiece respirator with an N100, R100, or P100 filter.
  \ Click here for information on selection of N, R, or P filters.
  Any appropriate escape-type, self-contained breathing apparatus\
  Important additional information about respirator selection
  
  Just play chess on your free time to balance it oot :^)