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PSA: A talk with my wife's cousin who works in tech made me see our trade differently
He was over for dinner last week and asked me what the hardest part of my job was. I started talking about a tricky conduit run I did in a tight ceiling space. He listened and then said, 'So you're basically a physical problem solver who has to think in 3D and account for a bunch of invisible rules, all while making sure nothing catches fire. That's like a real-world systems engineer.' I mean, I'd never thought of it like that before. We always just call it pulling wire or roughing in a house. But he framed it as this complex, high-stakes puzzle. It hit different because it came from someone outside the trade who wasn't just seeing the mess or the bill. It made me appreciate the brain work we do that customers don't see. Has anyone else had a moment where someone not in the trades described your job in a way that made you pause?
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brianm661mo ago
My buddy's kid called him a 'house doctor' once, and it stuck with him. He said it made him think about troubleshooting a bad circuit like finding out what's making a house sick. Kind of a simple way to put it, but it really changed how he sees his own work.
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