The Urban Mineshaft

Will Truman

Will Truman is the Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. He is also on Twitter.

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10 Responses

  1. Oscar Gordon says:

    One of the benefits, I guess you could call it, of getting married at 21, is that as a married couple, we had no tolerance for such conditions (whereas, were we single, we may have). That has influenced our career choices every step of the way.

    Although, TBH, had I not gotten married, I had a number of lucrative offers as an ‘At Large’ turbine trouble shooter. The pay was 6 figures out the gate, but it would have been something like 75% travel around the world.Report

    • fillyjonk in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

      I’m trying to think back to Younger Me and if I’d have been up for some kind of “make a lot of money in a short time in return for considerable discomfort” thing and I suspect the answer for me would be “no.”

      I can’t deal with less than 6 hours of sleep a night (as many of those high pressure developer jobs seem to require a certain insomnia). I can’t deal with living in potentially unsafe conditions or some situation where I’d have to hotbunk with a bunch of other people.

      The older I get, the less willing I am able to deal with discomfort. There might be an opportunity to go teach in China for seven weeks some summer and while the money is good and it seems like they take care of the instructors well (housing and food), I just….I can’t imagine uprooting for seven weeks and going somewhere where I don’t speak a word of the language. (I would feel similarly discombobulated at the thought of going to Germany, and I actually speak a little German). Also with my weird health issues (weird allergies, in particular), the thought of trying to negotiate emergency health care in another country (if it became necessary) vaguely terrifies me.

      (I’m really hoping we are not *pressured* to do it, or it’s suggested we are being “uncollegial” if we prefer not to. I have many reasons – health issues, aging parents, responsibilities elsewhere in my life – for not going. Seven weeks is a very long time to be away.)Report

  2. Michael Cain says:

    That which cannot go on forever must end, and this isn’t sustainable, but I don’t know how it ends.

    The Bay area* CSA is 8.8M people. The LA CSA is 18.8M. The NYC CSA is 28.9M. Greater Tokyo is 39M. Seems like there’s a long way to go. It’ll change to deal with problems, but that’s true of any place.

    * I’m reluctant to keep calling it “San Francisco.” San Jose is now the largest individual city. Oakland is the largest port by tonnage. SFO in San Mateo County is the largest port by value. Alameda County on the east side of the Bay has a population comparable to San Francisco plus San Mateo County.Report