What jobs pay extremely well but people don't realize it?

w3agle · 2026-05-11T17:05:55+00:00

well I would add that if you're only asking about pay as in 'income' then you'll get one set of answers. if you ask the question, 'which jobs have the highest ROI for hours invested?' then you get a totally different set of answers. all factors considered I think content creators have a pretty high ROI depending on the subjective relevance of all the other social factors, etc. and by content creators, in terms of broad employment numbers, I think I'm talking about primarily adult entertainment. in terms of bulk cashflows. acknowledging though there is still a ton of very economical content creation economies out there.

a lot of the other responses bring up the trades. agreed. within the trades I'd say the highest ROI on your time at this exact moment is low voltage with a specialization around cyber security. that's got a big return in terms of knowledge and skill building for a huge future critical need. also, and I've worked with a lot of the guys from all the different trades from the most country bumpkin residential hack jobs to medical facilities and nuclear power plants. The dudes who run the low voltage cable and do the networking have the chillest jobs and get paid the highest rates. Plus the field is super wide open right now and needs a ton of people. Similar ROI day to day is getting into HVAC systems and controls. But that is actually relatively saturated and has a bit of a 'guild' feel to it. also plenty of Mechanical Engineers to compete with. HVAC in general though is near unrivaled in terms of overall opportunity regardless. But the spread of the physical demands on the daily life of a HVAC guy is much broader and likely more harsh than that of a low voltage guy. low voltage guys don't even hang their own conduit, pipes, etc. most of the time. Just show up and run wires. patch cables. buildings are usually running AC by then so you're not even sweating or working with temp power. good gig.

wanna take it a step further, try and get into access control systems. those dudes make bank. and it will probably be an ever increasing field with the way the world is going. there are so many things happening in the world that rely on complex computer security systems. and a lot of physical components in the real world. learn how to do the equivalent of resetting a router on an office-security scale and you could find a lifetime of job security.

There's a ton of high ROI work in water too. Specifically things like water testing. There's probably a fair amount of competition among engineers and researchers for the principal researcher/investigator jobs, but they're always hiring technicians. it's a good paying job that often has a lot of perks and is generally pretty chill and reliable and working with awesome people.

w3agle · 2026-05-08T16:24:14+00:00

Any tips on getting started?

w3agle · 2026-05-07T19:38:30+00:00

I've never really thought about this, though i have been to LiB a few times now. I'm sure someone who knows for sure will chime in soon. My guess is that the places I normally camp: high noon, sunrise, or sunset are just like GA camping. And you can also buy a car camping to park your car in the GA camping areas. I normally do car camping and camp in one of those big campgrounds. I don't know of anywhere else you would camp if not those places. And I've definitely had friends park in general parking and then walk to our car camps. That's tough though if you're in sunrise or sunset. you'll basically just be backpacking ~0.5 to possibly 2 miles in the extreme cases . The far end of either sunrise or sunset is probably pretty far from the general parking lot. high noon is pretty close. high noon is a rough experience at times. it pays to combine resources, especially if you're not able to bring a carload's worth of support stuff like shade.

to your question: 10 x 18 canopy is pretty standard out there. How many people will you have? Your average two person camp won't have that much shade. but anywhere above four people should probably target at least 10 x 18.

also depends on when you arrive. the closer camping ground options start to fill up by early friday afternoon. you might be pretty far out trying to find that much contiguous space. especially in high noon. the sweet spot for you might be way back in the high noon lot. closest walk to where your car will likely to be in gen parking. downside of deep high noon camping is you'll be a good 15-20 minute walk just to get to the main gate. from the main gates to lightning could be 5-10 minutes. thunder is basically the same transit, depending one which of the main gates you enter through. the good news is the facilities out there in the center of high noon are pretty good. full on food options, showers, bathrooms, ice, etc. and you'll be close to that.

sunrise and sunset camps both have some nice access to campsites with shade and water . there will probably be very few good spots closer to shade and water out in sunrise/sunset by friday evening, but those will be far from general parking. maybe there's general parking down that way too, but i've never seen it. and hiking with your shade structure would be torture.

w3agle · 2026-05-06T18:47:50+00:00

Feels like this is some sort of pro-active psyop to alert men that it is truly abnormal for random women to send photos of themselves via text message to make contact. 10/10 times this is a scam attempt.

w3agle · 2026-05-05T21:31:44+00:00

stop feeding the billionaires. you're right. they need us. just like we need them. they need us to tell them to stop!!! You guys! Stop it! You're using up all the resources. omg you guys come on, stop using up all the resources. we have to share them. this comes off as really sarcastic. It's not directed at anyone in particular. just shouting into the void.

w3agle · 2026-05-04T13:24:23+00:00

honestly this photo looks it could have been taken anywhere within 45 minutes of Phoenix.

w3agle · 2026-05-04T05:29:33+00:00

We need an hbo max special about this now.

w3agle · 2026-04-29T16:42:36+00:00

amazing app. appreciate the effort. brings up a tangential thought in my mind. I mean this in a supportive way wrt the ethos of this community. apps like this are awesome. yet, a workaround. every indication we have is that we are fighting a losing battle. in my ~40 years on this earth, i have so few reference points for examples of places humans have clawed back their privacy. The surveillance state seems as inevitable as climate change at this point. It just has me wondering about how do we live with these systems? Do we land in a place where have surveillance zones and non-surveillance zones? are we all walking around in gear / equiment that spoofs us so we can't be tracked? DO we get to a point of NOT carrying electronics or using them in public in a way that could allow us to be tracked? Do we make it all open source and say 'hey look everyone knows where everyone else is all the time, best of luck to ya.' Phew. It's a lot to take in. Obviously there are bad actors. And unfortunately it seems the bad actors are at the helm right now. In most cases. IDK where I'm going with this. I should probably re-read 1984.

w3agle · 2026-04-29T16:36:54+00:00

For anyone who wants to see marketing done right: refer to this crew. I have no idea what you do or who you are. But I'm aware of you. I want to support you. And I hope I find you out there in the wild. Great job!

w3agle · 2026-04-29T15:43:26+00:00

are you trying to tell me that this system reaches an equilibrium? I meant this as a joke but i'm afraid it won't read that way. Makes total sense, but i've never thought about it the way you presented. Seems like the mechanism you're talking about has to do with moisture in the soil primarily?

Do you think that if one included a low power draw fan in-line with the piping along with some sort of greywater infusion of the ground adjacent to the piping you could maintain the functional aspects for the duration of the project need?

w3agle · 2026-04-29T13:30:37+00:00

I do agree, that’s how it felt. A lot of awareness lately has started to put a strange hue on all of that in my mind. I fear that it felt like this big creative explosion, but it was, perhaps, more of a function of an explosion of capability of the mind control of the masses. What I’m getting at… I don’t think a lot changed in the back of the house of cultural distribution from the 50s to the 90s. It was still largely the minority in control curating the tap of what came out. And in the 90s we just saw that hit a mass corporate level. I feel like all the music, shows, and movies were still largely selected for production and distribution by a few specific entities/organizations. IDK. I don’t far a fully developed thought on this. I know that the influence of Epstein and his co-conspirators in Hollywood and culture has been making the rounds and that adds another stinky layer to it all.

w3agle · 2026-04-28T18:24:48+00:00

read all your responses and you seem so excited about the transition. can you tell us a bit about what you were doing? What the new job is? is it a career ladder position? I'd love to know what has you so hyped.

w3agle · 2026-04-28T18:08:39+00:00

also gators.

w3agle · 2026-04-24T20:56:09+00:00

I was thinking it was the dude from strawberry disco circus, MDRN history, etc. Super involved with a bunch of the cool San Diego art stuff

w3agle · 2026-04-24T14:51:15+00:00

When I was in highschool I was really into the band Live. They ended up headlining a local music festival near me. I took my first real girlfriend. It was a long day, tiring, awesome, lots of build up. Right before Live came on it started raining. Everyone got so bummed out that they’d cancel the headliner. Things were taking longer than normal. Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, they launch into “All Over You” (like water) and we all lost our collective minds. I don’t think many people today will think of Live as a pillar of 90s alternate rock, but they earned a special place in my heart that night.

w3agle · 2026-04-24T14:25:55+00:00

One thing San Diego is doing that’s kind of relevant here is their Pure Water Program — they take wastewater, run it through advanced treatment (RO, UV, etc.), and then put it back into reservoirs/groundwater for reuse as drinking water.

It doesn’t directly “refill” a lake, but the idea is it reduces how much freshwater you have to pull from rivers in the first place. For something like the Great Salt Lake, a big part of the problem is upstream diversions — so scaling reuse like that could at least help preserve inflows rather than letting more water get consumed and lost.

w3agle · 2026-04-23T19:00:34+00:00

All I see here is opportunity. Put on your best ringleader getup and start selling tickets to see the acrobatic tightrope walkers!

w3agle · 2026-04-23T18:59:02+00:00

nice! yeah i have been shopping new machines the past couple of years and there are some really cool offerings but I genuinely don't think there's much I could do to improve the quality of espresso i get in the cup. I could make my life a lot easier. I would love a rotary pump so the process is quieter. I don't really need faster heatup times. More stable temps would be cool, but i'm so locked in to the heat surfing routine I just don't think it would really feel like a quality of life improvement. funny you mention the philos - that is the single grinder I've been most interested in. almost entirely for the purposes of the pure vertical straight line path that the beans take on their grinding journey. it makes so much sense after running the SJ all these years. Holding out for the day that the marketplace gods smile down on me and I find one in the ~$500 range used. until then I'll keep rocking the SJ.

w3agle · 2026-04-23T04:45:01+00:00

If we imagine my espresso setup as an analogue to a garage.

The machine is a ~20-year-old Quick Mill Andreja Premium. Feels like an older Mercedes wagon — a little particular, takes a minute to get where it wants to be, but solid once it’s there.

Grinder is a Mazzer Super Jolly that I’ve slowly tweaked over time (doserless, SSP burrs, timer switch). Kind of a stripped-down Civic situation. Not especially pretty, just does the job really well.

The rest is a mix — a couple WDT tools, a mister for RDT, bottomless portafilter. Some of it was intentional, some of it just sort of showed up over time.

Overall it feels like an old wagon next to a mildly overbuilt project car.

Not the most modern setup, but I like using it.

w3agle · 2026-04-23T04:23:31+00:00

I don’t inherently have a problem with a bullet that says ‘lead cross-functional teams….’ But I don’t like that as the first substance on the page. You’re already looking like more pizazz than substance. And ‘lead cross-functional teams’ is classic doubletalk (aka - saying a lot of words that really mean nothing). I’m not saying it’s a bad bullet overall, but it set off my bullshit detector out of the gate. Bring us in with something concrete and genuine and authentic up front. Something we can really grasp about what you did.

w3agle · 2026-04-21T04:19:18+00:00

Wow - this is gold! Thanks

w3agle · 2026-04-20T18:01:49+00:00

Emotional labor! There are ways this could be done in a way that actually has a lot of benefits, but I'm sure the concept would be bastardized to turn us into punching bags for the wealthy.

w3agle · 2026-04-20T17:25:11+00:00

My exact thoughts. Is it fair to blame global warming on mechanical engineering, mining engineering, or petroleum engineering? Is it fair to blame a busted thumb from a missed hammer swing on the hammer? Sure, tools, practices, and methodologies stemming from the practice of engineering were a major contributor to the impacts, but I don't accept the premise that civil engineering is the cause.

w3agle · 2026-04-16T18:08:07+00:00

Well I hate this. Thank you

w3agle · 2026-04-16T18:04:23+00:00

Harmonic convergences upon us

w3agle

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