I work in software but I have a side job working for an arborist, and you might have been joking but it's legit a great industry to have a backup plan in.

Most arborists near me have more work than they can keep up with. You see, the thing about trees is, you trim them, wait a year, and the bastards grow back! It's like a giant scam and the trees are all in on it!

It's a pretty fun job too, if you're relatively fit. You get to climb trees, throw logs into giant scary chippers, and you get first dibs on all the best gun and sword shaped sticks.

[–] annoying_cyclist@programming.dev 8 points 10 hours ago

I was half joking. 😅 Of all the tradesfolk I've hired to do work on my house, my arborist is the only one who's job I could see myself actually liking. He gets paid to be a nerd about something (trees, tree health, tree care), the work itself seems a lot more pleasant than dealing with plumbing or electrical repairs, and at least my guy is a one man band who just shows up and does his thing, which is certainly appealing after a career of various EMs, PMs, TPMs, and other people who need to be appeased when doing work. Also the fun tools.