Learning from dirty jobs | Mike Rowe

What people said

alexashka · 2015-04 · Recommendation

This is actually an even more extreme trend among some of the asian immigrant folks I've been in school with - their parents can be incredibly close-minded, overbearing and abusive. The pressure kids feel is largely fictional, in the sense that the world ISN'T going to end if they 'only go to college'. For example when I graduated highschool and went straight to college and some of the folks I knew stayed behind for an extra year to get their grades up - my parents in unison with me, thought they were failures. Looking back - it was smart. I am not working in the field that I studied, so the joke is on me :) Another thing to realize is that there are a number of jobs that are not intellectual that can be quite fulfilling, honestly. [VIDEO] This guy is a big proponent of more down to earth careers and I agree with everything he says, even though I'm a programmer. In short - the pressures are due to having a narrow view of the world and what success means. If you widen it to include working construction or going to college to become an ultrasound technician - it's not so bad all of a sudden. Parents just have to stop pushing their lack of achievements and phobias on to their kids - easier said than done of course. Solution? Incentivize intelligent people to breed more and try-hards and ignoramuses to breed less and the problem will be solved, in some number of decades :)

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InclinedPlane · 2013-03 · Recommendation

I took AP classes in college, and I work in the software industry, but I still know how to work with my hands and I'm very happy to have that knowledge. It's not that hard, if you feel bad about not knowing anything, go learn, go take a class or two, go read a book or two, go ask a friend, or use the internet, there are a million excellent resources out there. Pick a simple project and do it, then do another project. Stocking a basic toolbox is extraordinarily inexpensive, there's really no reason not to have one. I think the reason so many people aren't as handy as they used to be has to do more with culture than with anything else, here's an excellent TED talk from Mike Rowe (from Dirty Jobs) on the subject: [VIDEO]

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shantanubala · 2013-01 · Recommendation

I don't think anyone knows what they really like when they're young, and I believe even more firmly that parents are usually a better source of influence than peers. These are obviously generalizations, but I think Mike Rowe explains it best: [VIDEO]

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