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Comment by soared | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think someone working at a call center has the technical aptitude and financial resources to source and build there own extrusion machine.

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Lots of technically gifted people working dead-end jobs, due to things like location, family situation, lack of formal education, personal issues, or whatever :-)

Exactly.

As the saying goes "talent is evenly distributed; opportunity is not."

I've known lots of very smart people working what would be considered dead-end, or at least, lower-end jobs.

Yes, I know a lot of people who don't have opportunity or have some sort of mental roadblock that makes them not put efforts into area which can potentially produce result. I am not sure if there is some name of this phenomenon.

But usually they need a visionary who can make them believe in the idea and then they can put their work/efforts/mind into it with confidence and they do end up achieving the result at the end.

Hard times can make hard people. You don't know what someone is capable of until they're backed against a wall. I was a computer repair man until my parent's divorce and the 2008 market collapse which forced me into a CS degree.

Computer repair -> computer science.

Call center -> building machines from scratch based on a medium post.

Sure it’s possible but I don’t think the suggestion really makes sense. You can be blind to the fact that hn is in the 1% of intellect/ability, but it should be obvious that effectively no one can honestly take that suggestion. Unemployed, low on cash, and then in a low-skill industry it doesn’t make sense to risk $500 to $1000 on a project that you likely won’t be able to build.

Yea but OP is trying to help his friend and I am pretty sure they've some friend who might have experience working with mechanical things, maybe they know a mechanical engineer and JV, produce output and turn it into a mini factory, we never know!

I definitely get it from the capital perspective. I just want you to give underemployed a fair shake before making a judgement.

BS. For most of human history there was no manufacturing, people made stuff by hand. Every human is Capable of learning and making this machine. And it’s awesome that people are trying to teach others.

I'm pretty sure the people down-voting you to Hell don't know a single working-class person working a dead-end job for peanuts.

Have you worked at a call center?

In a past life I worked at a place where my manager & IT guy were originally call center workers. The manager was a crafty guy, does nice woodwork. My ex happened to also work at that call center & is now an illustrator. Another friend from that place eventually went to college to be a machinist

It's almost like some people don't attach their identity to their job, and make an income to pursue their interests in other hours.

Indeed. I've always hated that question "what do you do" (meaning your job) and usually answer it with "about what?"

I understand it's a pretty straightforward way to look for common ground and introductory topic of conversation, but there's a massive implication which I consider socially corrosive.

What is the implication and why is it socially corrosive?

The implication is that you define someone purely by their career. It's socially corrosive because we end up with people valuing themselves based on their vocation, & consequently we judge a man's worth on the salary he brings home

The implication is that one's worth comes from one's job, with the corollary that one's role in society is that of "worker" and "consumer", or if not simply just "consumer" then worthless.

It is socially corrosive because it is removes any concept of social relationship from the calculus of social worth.

And you see this in the discussion of "opening up the economy" as though that is the #1 parameter of existence. Certainly without a functioning economy there is no food or other basic needs, but the objectives are complex functions, not simplistic ones. The implication is that those who were not lucky enough to have a job that generates income during a time of pandemic must needs put themselves at risk while others need not. Disgraceful.

It's the same reason I cringe when people talk or write about "consuming content", as if "content" is fungible and that peoples' roles are to "consume" it -- when information is not "consumed" (destroyed) by being enjoyed.

> It is socially corrosive because it is removes any concept of social relationship from the calculus of social worth.

I don't see how that follows from "What do you do?" because one could answer:

A) I volunteer at... B) I take care of... C) I love... D) etc.

I used to work in a call center and now work as an EE with a masters degree.

I work for a call centre of sorts.You wouldn't believe the kind of skills people have.

Technical aptitude is probably not significantly required, as a guide exists, forums exist, and shop employees exist -- you should be very far away from "starting from scratch". The main risk in low-knowledge is that you're liklier to fail at finding "cheap but good condition", instead obtaining "cheap and breaks in a few months"

Cost is the bigger concern, but at 600-700 $, it's hardly mind-numbing.

Reminds me of the people who think if you have C# experience you can't handle other programming languages. Amazing how having a skill can be seen as a negative! Yes on average people who can do X can't do Y might apply, but in this situation and the interview one too, you are talking about a specific person not an average.

People are a lot more capable than you think. There's a pretty vast oversupply of talent and not enough jobs to fill them. As a result, you have people who are capable of becoming so much more ending up in menial, low end jobs.

Crisis is the mother of invention and motivation. This thread is awesome because it’s the sharing of knowledge that will give people opportunities. Even if they don’t currently have the ability it’s amazing to teach each other.

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