I'm a software developer, but I spent three months chucking boxes in the back of a truck for General Motors one summer. Some days, my brain is fried after six hours at my job, but the physical labor work I could do for 12 hours and walk out feeling almost refreshed.

I sometimes wish I could go through a day of work just... doing. Not wracked with indecision or trying to figure out which tradeoff I won't regret in three weeks. The idea of going into a framed house and wiring up electric all day and then going home — without ever having done it or experiencing the downsides of course— it sounds really nice.

Of course my back and joints couldn't keep up at fifty like they did at twenty-two, and I met a bunch of functional addicts working that job and I wouldn't have wanted to get swept up in that.