Mike Rowe video on lamb castration and sacrificing some sacred cows
 

Originally a TED talk but appears in higher resolution via YT.

20 minutes of your time. Awesome.

Interesting thoughts. I like Mike Rowe. He seems real. Thanks for sharing this, UT.

I think the reason people who work in manual labor jobs are happier is because they dont take their work home with them. I was a manager for Hyatt working 60+ hours a week and I dont think I knew a moment of peace the entire 5 years I was there. I lived with the stress of the job 24/7. Of course, the fact that I'm not cut out for management played a huge role, but but I only took the job because it had 'status' of sorts. Now I am watering plants in a garden center and I love the job. Before that I sold mens suits in a department store and I loved that job. Neither one of them added stress to my daily life. There is a certain freedom there.

Eh. It is what you make of it. We all take a little bit home with us. Some more than others. I think it speaks more about the person than the job as to how much we project our job stress on others.

And making money affords us a certain freedom: to take a little vacation, to maybe buy a shirt we like, to go to a bookstore and buy that cool artbook we never could have bought before.

If your spouse makes money, and you can choose, that is great. But it's not always the case. Though I want to buy the Unabomber cabin (yet not be the unabomber mentality) I have to have my own money to do so. ;)

Otherwise, you have to make your way in this world. Sadly, it's all about doing the best you can with the skills you have, and making it. Otherwise, you're always wishing the next day will be better and easier.

well said. And when one's perspective gets altered suddenly and roadblocks restrict the options one has.... well that sucks on a whole bunch of levels.

Meh.
Wasn't convinced that one farmer's opinion outweighed the Humane Society's opinion. I'm not a fan of PETA, but they at least have some more feedback than one single farmer.

And the idea that roadkill scrapers whistle while they work? Yeah, I'm sure they do.
They're happy in their work? Yes I'm sure they are.
Is this for everyone? Hello! WFT are you doing in front of a microphone if that's the way for the whole world to go? You go scrape roadkill.

And yet the flipside - he idolises people who value money more than safety.
Why were those fishermen out there disregarding their own safety?
So they could whistle?
No, because they want MONEY. Because the more dangerous the work, the more money they get. Tell you what - tell those fishermen they can get half the money for their catch, or twice the money on the talk-show circuit. See where they go.

Working men are decent in their own way.
I know - I came from a family of them.
But I admit they are despised by the average Americans - at least as far as conversations on this board have gone.
When I've said my Dad and Grandad have worked hard but not profitably, they have been disparaged for not wanting to have two jobs and go to night school and hew logs and get a degree etc etc.
They wanted to do their dirty jobs, earn what they were worth and get the pensions they were promised.
The fact my Grandad believed in the Welfare State, the fact my Dad's pension fund was robbed by his boss (Robert Maxwell - look it up, it's a fact) were not really their fault.

You can't have it both ways.
Unless of course the American ideal is to work, to strive and not to yield... as long as you come out with money. And that's not a balanced equation.

Cite.

Really? Just seemed like common sense to me. I mean, would you rather have your ear pierced quickly with a needle/gun, or over a weeks time by slowly screwing into it? The latter seems like torture to me, as does the cut off blood supply and let it rot and fall off docking/castration method.

I was more fascinated by how surprised he was that he was wrong about something he admittedly knew nothing about the day before he formed his opinion... Although I didn't disagree with anything he said really, nothing struck me as epiphanic.

Well that is until the government comes along and tells you that you have to pay for all those other people who did not work and sacrafice as hard as you.

FWIW, he does scrape roadkill. This is a strange venue for him, giving this talk--his television show is called "Dirty Jobs" and on each episode he learns and participates in the hard labor of an unpleasant and/or menial profession. "The people who make civilized society possible for the rest of us." It's not that these jobs are specifically for everyone, it's that these people he works with fundamentally understand that work is work and isn't supposed to be the ultimate joy-bringer in your life, thus they are not disappointed when it turns out not to be. In fact, he too is not where his "passion" would have led him--he used to be an opera singer, believe it or not. Now he does this weird show, where granted he is a celebrity, but at the same time he is working extremely hard and you can clearly see it in the episodes.


His point isn't really the money, it's the fact that there is honor in doing real work, and if you do it well you will be rewarded for it even if it's not your one true love. And he agrees, the average American has lost sight of the respectability of just doing your job and getting paid what you're worth for it. The American ideal ought to be to work hard, but instead it has drifted to become "love what you do," which simply isn't going to happen for the majority of the population no matter how hard they try.

"My job isn't to get you home alive; my job is to get you home rich."

Aha. Then he's preaching to the converted, which is why I couldn't work out his drift. Still not convinced about the lam things though...

I am a great believer that not everyone will reach the brass ring, and people working in their niche should not be seen as inferioer and ambitionless. I see now that he's not saying "everyone should work like this", he's saying, "respect the ones that do." Thank you, I really missed his point :smack:

Having a job and a life, vs having a career define your life, has advantages like instant stress relief by changing hats.