[Amygaz]

Hey! Sometime I think about taking a 6 months leave to go flip burgers a the local gourmet burger place. Blacksmithing would be a close second. As for peat I wouldn't do it, because I do not see the point. Peats are very important ecosystems that we're wasting. Golf-quality front-yard aren't useful or important. And people should compost.

[asfasgasg]

That is a very privileged point of view. You want to think the grass is at least more interesting on the other side, but I've done a stint in fast food. It is hard, smelly, nasty, poorly compensated labor. It is not at all like home cooking, which I love. I've never worked harder than the summer I did at Wendy's in high school, and I've never been paid less.

As for blacksmithing, yeah, the artisanship side of that would be cool. However, considering you have no skill, you'd probably spend six months making horse shoes. If that seems like fun to you, well, you still probably couldn't get that work, because there's just not very much demand for blacksmiths these days. :)

[toomanybeersies]

They are more likely to spend 6 months shovelling coal into a fire and sweeping the floor at a blacksmiths.

Blacksmiths don't make horseshoes either, that's a farrier's job (who still buy them off the shelf and finish them by hand). Being a farrier is also not an easy job, take a 3 or 4 apprenticeship to become one. There seems to be this viewpoint I see a lot on Hacker News that blue collar jobs are unskilled jobs. Most skilled trades require a 3 or 4 year apprenticeship, you can't just learn how to be a fitter and turner, or a carpenter, or a blacksmith/farrier in a couple of weekends. It's this kind of arrogant attitude that causes the tradies to have no respect for the book-learned engineers straight out of university that think because they have a degree they know how to build a road.

[jimmywanger]

> That is a very privileged point of view. What's privileged about it? He said he wanted to do something different, and these were things that interested him.

> ...I've done a stint in fast food. He specifically mentioned a gourmet burger place.

> However, considering you have no skill, you'd probably spend six months making horse shoes. If you're doing blacksmithing for a living, most likely you're a farrier. Demand for custom ironwork is very low.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Oddly enough...

The only farrier I know isn't a blacksmith. Actually I don't remember what her full time job is.

And the only person I've ever known who did custom ironwork was a software tester.

Go figure!

[toomanybeersies]

> Sometime I think about taking a 6 months leave to go flip burgers a the local gourmet burger place

If working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week sounds like fun to you, then I'd totally recommend it.

You'd probably spend most of your day cutting potatoes and washing dishes though, rather than actually cooking burgers. And even if you did get to cooking, you'd be making the same half a dozen menu items day in, day out. You won't have any creative control, you're a production line worker.