100 Years Ago, What Would You Be?

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100 Years Ago, What Would You Be?

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djackson 22568 SSChampion Points: 11733 More actions · Answer 1

This one is easy. Most of the people in the computer field that I have talked to about personal hobbies are into either woodworking, music, or both. From what I understand music and woodworking both are similar to computer programming/DBA work in that they require you to use your brain. I am sure that if a study were done, we would find a lot of technical people have other hobbies in common as well, a lot of us are gamers for example, and while I enjoy a good FPS game, I constantly find myself playing games like Suduko. How about the rest of you?

So, I agree that you would probably see most technical people thrown back to the early 1900's working in jobs that require skill, whether those be white or blue collar.

Dave

Matt Penner SSC Enthusiast Points: 127 More actions · Answer 2

This is a fun topic that has popped into my head from time to time.

Despite some opinions on lack of education and other possibilities today I like to agree with the author. Many of us (myself included) are in the job because it is a great brain challenge. Also, my job today (2010) isn't being a DBA, software development or in IT but it is a job to design/implement systems that make people's lives better. When I design a great database/reporting tool for my admin staff I like to hear about it and how many hours it has saved them. I like to hear how they use tools I created to address problems that we never even thought of a year before, only because they now have a foundation to expand from.

If I were thrown 100 years into the past I think I would be an engineer of sorts. I like to work with my hands but I like to improve on design.

My thoughts often go to what would I be if I was thrown into mid-eval times where technology as we know it doesn't even exist. Mechanical machines, gear systems, metallurgy and architectural skill are about all you have. I think in those times I would have found some way to work on siege engines or something of the sort. Something big that, if you figure out the right design, can really impact society. Albeit the pros/cons depend on which side of the siege engine you're on, and make sure you aren't actually "on" the seige engine. Engineers don't like boiling oil dropped on their heads. 🙂

Revenant SSC-Forever Points: 42467 More actions · Answer 3

I would be what I trained to be, aeronautical engineer, and I would have just enough time to build the best fighter ("scout," as they called them then) of WWII.

Andrew Meyer Grasshopper Points: 18 More actions · Answer 4

I would have been a farmer. My family history is dairy farming, and the only other option around here was working in a paper mill, which was not a place for farmers. The introduction of PCs in the late '70s and the encouragement of my parents to get out of farming and do what I want to do are responsible for moving me on the path to DBA.

Randy Rabin SSCommitted Points: 1512 More actions · Answer 5

Before I got hooked on computers I was an astronomy buff. I would've ended up in one of the observatories at the time, probably Mount Wilson. If I still had my current knowledge back in 1910, I probably would've "discreetly" used it to accelerate our knowledge of the solar system and beyond.

Even if I didn't get that far in my "career", going back to a time before light pollution would have been amazing enough.

Halley's Comet came through that year, but alas it came through in April and it's now late October.

rtelgenhoff SSC Eights! Points: 928 More actions · Answer 6

I agree, I like woodworking, music, sudoku and C&C, and electrical/electronics work, as well as data analysis. These seem to be common themes on these posts.

Mike B in AK SSC Eights! Points: 900 More actions · Answer 7

I think I would define my new career based on my middle . Wayne = Wagon or cart maker.

So, as that time period is still the very early era of making the horseless carriages of the day, I would try to get a jump on the auto industry.

K. Brian Kelley SSC Guru Points: 114642 More actions · Answer 8

It really depends for me. Likely my mother and father wouldn't have met. He's from Tennessee and met her in Okinawa during the Vietnam war when he was a Marine. If I followed along on the Japanese side, I would likely have been in construction and architecture like my grandfather. On the American side, probably the military.

K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley

J DBA SSCertifiable Points: 5008 More actions · Answer 9

Putting myself in my Grandfather's shoes, I would have run my own produce store. If I had been able to go to college, I would have most likely been an accountant.

J DBA

OCTom SSChampion Points: 11785 More actions · Answer 10

Since some of my other interests are accounting,finance,and the stock market, I likely would have been a banker or stock magnate; losing it all in 1929. 😛

Dave Vroman SSC Eights! Points: 821 More actions · Answer 11

Since I got my degree before there was a computer science degree at CSULB, I initially put my math degree to work in teaching. 100 years ago, I would have done the same with maybe a look at engineering.

DougGifford SSCommitted Points: 1815 More actions · Answer 12

Honky Tonk player in a brothel or maybe like "Back to the Future", a blacksmith.

"When in danger or in doubt. Run in circles, scream and shout!" TANSTAAFL
"Robert A. Heinlein"

btiffany Newbie Points: 2 More actions · Answer 13

No doubt about it: I'd be a locomotive engineer. (I'd like to be one today, if I could.)

Maybe I'd get to know my ancestors, too. But knowing their futures could be troublesome; e.g., knowing my great grandfather, Senator Benjamin Franklin Shively of Indiana, would become ill and die in office in 1916.

Maybe I should just stay in the present ...

Jason Wolfkill SSCrazy Eights Points: 9832 More actions · Answer 14

A friend who does metalwork as a hobby often dreams of blasting society back to, if not the Stone Age, then at least to the mid-18th century, where he as a blacksmith would be on the cutting edge of technology.

Jason Wolfkill

Alan Vogan SSCrazy Points: 2513 More actions · Answer 15

Accckkk! You're all so squeaky clean! Where is that DBA pessimism! :w00t: I would have been a beer brewer and moonshiner, and as this is 1910, you can assume that I'm armed and wanted by the law!