Thread: TI can't make razors fast enough.

Hopefully my "sit behind a desk" comment was not seen as a bad thing. My day job is basically behind a desk doing technical consulting, my strop business is hands on making things. I should have more correctly said it seems like the young guys I meet (and hire) today have no interest in making anything physical. They want a job where they are at a computer all day using only their minds. It is still creating, it is still hard work but I still stand by the hands on creating something physical with the hands is fading.

Hey, I've always had a business making something since I was 20 and have always tried to excell at it. In most cases I took a lost art and set the bar for others on what is expected. But, like most today I still prefer the security of the corporate world to care for my family instead of the variances of total self employment. While the razor/shaving movement is growing today, that growth could be gone tomorrow and a new fad will happen.

There will always be a few wanting a job producing somehting long ago lost, a grinder for Dovo, etc.... but they are few and far between.

Tony

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

Hopefully my "sit behind a desk" comment was not seen as a bad thing. My day job is basically behind a desk doing technical consulting, my strop business is hands on making things. I should have more correctly said it seems like the young guys I meet (and hire) today have no interest in making anything physical. They want a job where they are at a computer all day using only their minds. It is still creating, it is still hard work but I still stand by the hands on creating something physical with the hands is fading.
...
There will always be a few wanting a job producing somehting long ago lost, a grinder for Dovo, etc.... but they are few and far between.

Tony

No worries Tony.
I too like working with my hands. I like restoring straights, and I am slowly building my workshop by hand to try my hand at making a straight.
I spend quite a bit of time of this hobby, but doing this as a way to earn money and provide for my family is beyond my grasp. And to be honest, I think it would take the fun out of it, and leave me with stress instead.

I am lucky enough to really like my job as a programmer. I spend a lot of time after hours learning new things, reading books about programming languages / operating systems / ... to improve my skills and knowledge, and because I simply like doing it.

Imo, my job and my hobby complement each other.
My job provides the money that I need to provide for my family, and gives me the opportunity to spend a lot of time working with my hands without worrying about income.
My last finished resto took me over 20 hours. Then I spent an hour honing it, and I sold it cheaply.
The fact that I didn't need to worry about money allowed me to make a perfect-as-possible restoration for someone with a modest budget, rather than basing my price on the amount of time it took me.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I am lucky enough to really like my job as a programmer. I spend a lot of time after hours learning new things, reading books about programming languages / operating systems / ... to improve my skills and knowledge, and because I simply like doing it.

Hmmmm... I'm a programmer too. How many of "us" are there in SRP?
I think that a IT guy is the last guy you'd expect to use a straight razor, don't you think?

Originally Posted by Leon

Hmmmm... I'm a programmer too. How many of "us" are there in SRP?
I think that a IT guy is the last guy you'd expect to use a straight razor, don't you think?

Dunno. I am fascinated by C and C++, and especially the hairy stuff like partial template specialization.

I also like writing service applications and low level stuff to interface one system with another. I have written embedded software in assembly and C (2K of ram is enough for anybody), I have written applications for analyzing data that comes from a camera on a 'weather sattelite' (realtime analysis of images at 300MB/s), I have written kernel mode device drivers for real-time systems...

I don't like environments that 'protect me' from doing stupid things. By the same token, I have used a straight (well, shavette) since I was 17, and I have always been fascinated by sharp things.

Originally Posted by Leon

Hmmmm... I'm a programmer too. How many of "us" are there in SRP?
I think that a IT guy is the last guy you'd expect to use a straight razor, don't you think?

I'm in the IT.....I'm one of the annoying testers though.

Although everyday I wonder if there's something I'd be better at that I'd like more.

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

Although everyday I wonder if there's something I'd be better at that I'd like more.

Me too, Alex, me too...

But right now I wouldn't trade my IT job that provides me good Euros for some less secure job doing something else...

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

Although everyday I wonder if there's something I'd be better at that I'd like more.

If you can't see yourself enjoying your work in the future or having a satisfying career, then realize that you are still young enough to have a career change.
I've seen too many people in IT, hanging on to the job they hate because they are too old and there is nothing else they know how to do.

I know...I'm still looking for something that I'd rather do....can't think of anything so far.

I might start teaching classes in the company that I work for. That would be kind of cool. Who knows where I'll be in a year or two. Besides...what I'm doing now is decent enough and good enough money to stick to it for as long as I can't figure out what I'd rather do.

Originally Posted by Leon

Hmmmm... I'm a programmer too. How many of "us" are there in SRP?
I think that a IT guy is the last guy you'd expect to use a straight razor, don't you think?

I once thought about getting out and doing something else, but I got over it. I enjoy software too much.

I've been programming and designing systems for 20 yrs now, including early postscript firmware for laser printers, workflow systems for the insurance companies, and more recently software architecture in the oil and gas industry (oilfield operations and management, pipeline/tanker scheduling, refinery planning, production scheduling, and blending optimization). I've always been a bit of a Luddite outside of work. I deal with invisible abstractions all day long, and in between tracking down bugs in a 15M line system there's something comforting and reassuring about working with well-made low-tech objects.

Originally Posted by mparker762

I enjoy software too much.

I love software! But I hate, loathe, despise, the IT industry. I've seen too many projectmanagers getting promote to, and byound, their lever of incompetence...