Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Jtsummers 3874 days ago
> (In contrast, there aren't a lot of enthusiast janitors.)

Totally unrelated, but this is the second time recently I've seen a remark like this. And I agree entirely, but I actually know one. Guy retired, wanted to help out an underfunded school, became their janitor. Retired military so he's essentially got a (much better than) living wage for the rest of his life, the income was irrelevant. He just wanted to see the conditions for the students improved.

1 comments

Ha, fun to see the counterexample, totally makes sense.

Definitely more accurate to say that, while volunteerism is pervasive in some fields, it's far less common in others.

I think the fields where it's more common have huge social or moral benefits to go along with the job. Or sometimes they function like a foot in the door in a lucrative field. I can easily see helping out an underfunded school fitting the former categories.

Coal mining will probably be my go to example from now on... ;)