
Unemployed Fishing - unquote
https://www.drakemag.com/back-issues/2019/summer/2032-unemployed-fishing.html
======
nataz
Man, not sure how it showed up here, but I can relate to this piece. I spent
some time unexpectedly unemployed in the same regional area, and fishing was
my escape hatch too.

It was outdoors, physical, and cheap. It was art and science, and a moment
where skill and control could lead to accomplishment. It was solitude, and a
moment away from the internal stress of thinking of what you were going to do
next, how you were going to cover bills, or even worse; talking to
wife/parents/friends about those same things.

In the end I was fine, and in some ways I am grateful for that time. It gave
me a healthy dose of perspective, and a certain amount of self confidence that
I now know how to find additional work/clients if I need to. Getting knocked
down sucks, but looking back after a successful climb back up is something I
wish everyone could experience.

------
motohagiography
The trouble with corporate jobs is that we tend not to cultivate a social
support network and activities outside of it because many of these jobs are a
kind of slavish race to the bottom where people compete to show their
sacrifices in exchange for managerial favor. Some ways to hedge the (arguably,
insane) social risks of your corporate job are, before you are unemployed:

\- learn to fish, as the author mentions. Hunting is similar, and good for
relationships, as is canoeing, camping, and general outdoorsmanship.

\- buy a year+ membership at a cheap gym so you have somewhere to go a few
days a week while you are off. The cheaper it is, the more social it will be.
Think of it as social and mental health insurance.

\- join volunteer, church, or fraternal organizations to develop cheap
activity based relationships. if you are a committed atheist, join a secular
volunteer organization, and barring those, a theatre or activist group.

\- No matter what you hear about others, your severance will be a nasty insult
and you will very likely have to spend to hire a lawyer to get what you are
owed. Find one now and agree on a rate while you have a job.

\- keep lines to recruiters open while you are still employed, even if they
are obnoxious. Don't let them know your current/past salary ever, because they
will just use your lack of job to pressure you down on the next one. For them
to "have your number," literally means being at a disadvantage.

If you are unemployed or just about to be, it's very stressful, but it builds
character, and for everyone I know who experiences it, living through it is
always better than living in fear of it.

~~~
doc_gunthrop
> \- No matter what you hear about others, your severance will be a nasty
> insult and you will very likely have to spend to hire a lawyer to get what
> you are owed. Find one now and agree on a rate while you have a job.

While it's a nice sentiment for thought, severance pay isn't mandatory in the
U.S. and there's no requirement for it in the Fair Labor Standards Act[0].
Severance seems more like a customary courtesy, like tipping.

[0]:
[https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/severancepay](https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/severancepay)

~~~
agoodthrowaway
I don’t think the GP was implying that everyone gets severance. Generally
employers are often in legal grey areas when they are letting people go;
particularly in cases where there is no legal or policy violation. In these
cases they often try to bully you into giving up your rights. Severance is
payment for agreeing to waive your right to sue for wrongful termination.

~~~
doc_gunthrop
Fair point; severance pay can certainly act as a sort of "hush money". Not to
mention how it can be used to keep ex-employees from exposing trade secrets
with a competitor in the same industry.

------
Waterluvian
What I want to read more about are people in industries in steady decline and
why they didn't or couldn't get out before the end of the road. And maybe
about those who did.

There wasn't a sudden ban on journalism. And the story behind why he stuck
around until the end is what interests me.

~~~
imjk
Judging by the quality of his writing, I’m going assume he felt it like a
calling, stronger than any other.

------
m0zg
Love his writing style. As for fishing, I use multi-week road trips for the
same purpose instead. In this day and age, driving is one of the few remaining
activities where you are unable to use a cell phone at the same time, and it
really helps to clear my head. Scenery can be pretty amazing in the US, but
mostly it's the endless miles, sleeping at rest stops when I'm dog tired, and
then endless miles again. It's therapeutic.

------
steve_adams_86
Fishing is such a relief from the world, it really is. I've never fully
understood why it of all things had such a powerful draw and effect. As a kid
it kept me away from the things that tend to trouble you as a kid. Deep in the
woods on a river bank, digging through the stones to see what's hatching,
tying knots, whittling while your bobber whirls in an eddy. It's an escape.

As an adult I've turned to spearfishing as well. It's an even more immersive
escape, loaded with all of its own techniques, tricks, wonders, surprises, and
challenges. Getting in the wetsuit is a hassle but no worse than hooking up a
boat and getting it in the water. Really, once you spend your first
comfortable moments 10-20 meters under water you might wish you never had to
come out.

I've always thoroughly enjoyed reading about the satisfaction and joy others
get from fishing as well. I guess it's a mix of vicarious experience and a
sense of belonging or familiarity.

As for the unemployment... I don't envy anyone for having time away from work
due to not having work. It's the worst, and hard to handle if you have a
family when it happens. As a developer I've been incredibly fortunate due to
work being so readily available, but 2 brief layoffs are probably the most
stressful work related experiences I've had. It just feels terrible.

I wish I went fishing when it happened, haha.

~~~
mathieuh
Have you ever played an individual sport like tennis? I get a similar feeling,
especially when you’re just in the zone and you can’t seem to make a mistake.
Very therapeutic.

------
iliketosleep
There is something truly therapeutic about fishing. It might be because it
helps us connect back with our evolutionary roots - out in nature, focusing on
the task at hand to the exclusion of all else, and then experiencing the
dopamine rush that comes with a good catch.

~~~
WalterBright
I must be weird. I find fishing, sunning on the beach, sitting in a lawn
chair, etc., extremely dull, and last about 5 minutes at it.

This was true for me long before the internet :-)

~~~
privong
> I must be weird. I find fishing, sunning on the beach, sitting in a lawn
> chair, etc., extremely dull, and last about 5 minutes at it.

I'm the same way, but for fishing it depends on the type of fishing. Bait/lure
fishing I tire of quickly. But fly fishing was vastly different, at least the
one time I did it. It seemed a bit more technical and required more focus and
finesse.

~~~
germinalphrase
Fly fishing for trout is the standard, but I strongly recommended getting some
poppers and trying for bass/pan fish. Same fly fishing engagement but more
strikes.

~~~
privong
> Fly fishing for trout is the standard, but I strongly recommended getting
> some poppers and trying for bass/pan fish. Same fly fishing engagement but
> more strikes.

Thanks, I'll see if I can give that a shot. I have a fly rig mostly put
together, but I need to update the flies and get new line (it all belonged to
a long-dead great uncle).

------
DoreenMichele
Oh my, he has a way with words. This is a delight and I'm only a few
paragraphs in.

------
mback00
In the comment section was “learn to code.” Totally Insensitive... and not
that I agree, but nonetheless close to the point. The consolidation and
automation of news is here to stay, and not just journalists/writers — all of
us, in fact — need to be very careful to learn the new skills it takes to
compete in an increasingly automated world.

~~~
ravenstine
As someone who does code, I think most people would be worse off by learning
to code.

It can be a rewarding job for someone who enjoys constantly solving crazy
puzzles but, even for those who love to code, it can still be a miserable
experience. Most people aren't particularly grabbed by the ability to control
what a computer does the way that we "geeks" are. They would be bored out of
their minds the second they have to do Fizz Buzz, which is why a lot of people
never get off the ground with coding in the first place. The starting salary
is barely livable; the national average is ~65k, and though I now make six
figures, I started in the low 40ks. You won't get rich quick, perhaps at all,
and unless you're talented or pick the right technologies, you might be stuck
making mediocre pay while suffering the bad code of other learn-to-coders who
are in it to strike it rich. After about 4 years, you begin to realize that
your job is just like every other job, and that is to clean up the mess made
by someone else. Unless you're part of the <10% that actually builds brand new
stuff, your purpose is to be frequently astonished and make sense of the
chaos. _How fun._

Some people enjoy all of that, but it's a fallacy to believe that anyone could
do it if they _just learned_. More people aren't coding(or choosing
unemployment over coding) for the same reason that I and many of us didn't
learn to become aerospace engineers, or CEOs, or HVAC technicians. Most of us
probably wouldn't be that good at those things because we don't all have the
drive for them, and I don't think that having more people who are mediocre at
their jobs is a good thing for anyone.

~~~
bagacrap
65k is barely liveable now? What percent of the US do you think makes over
that amount?

~~~
ravenstine
You're right. You can live on that amount, perhaps well depending on how and
where you situate yourself. It's basically middle-income. How far that income
will get you in a place like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York is
another thing.

------
raincom
"I hit the wilds of Prince George’s County, forgotten fishing trails with
jungle undergrowth and hand-liner litter where catfish-seeking Central
Americans seem to have constructed altars of beer-can empties to the Lords of
Modelo."

When I was living in Piscataway, NJ, I used to roam along Raritan River during
the bad period of my life. I used to see lots of central Americans who fish
there. I hardly saw any one who is fully employed (40 years a week, with
benefits). Just undocumented workers, and those who are out of luck.

------
jjjensen90
There's a great horror novel called The Fisherman by John Langan that heavily
involves fishing and the catharthic solitude it can bring, even (or
especially) in times of tragedy or stress. I highly recommend it, but besides
that, this piece reinforces to me that the author of The Fisherman was
conveying some wider and real truth in that. Coupled with beautiful scenery
and good weather, fishing can become transcendental somehow.

------
jacobwilliamroy
Gathering wild fruits and spearfishing are my favorite things to do when I'm
needing some reassurance that I am going to be okay.

------
bagacrap
Sounds a lot like cycling and cyclists. We call it "funemployment".

------
jankotek
This sounds more like sabbatical.

------
acangiano
I would invite everyone here to get into fishing. It's an amazing sport and
pastime.

I'm reminded of a monologue
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5zShnoU5GY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5zShnoU5GY))
by an Italian actor. It's called, The Story of a Broken Man. This is my, more
or less literal, translation.

    
    
        This is the story of a man broken by power, commitments, and responsibilities.
    
        I've been thinking about how many years it has been since I've last gone fishing.
    
        I used to love fishing so much, but I don't go anymore.
    
        Perhaps, I had more important things to do, even though right now I couldn't tell you which.
    
        I haven't been back.
    
        We always have more important things to do that don't make us feel better,
        as if feeling better wasn't important enough.
    
        When I used to fish, I was so excited that I would wake up before the alarm went off.
        Actually, I was the one waking up the alarm. Wake uuup!
    
        And you're there fishing and you are alone, and if you're alone, you'll be at one with yourself, 
        you don't think about anything else anymore.
        You don't think about having to pay the mortgage, or about the current war.
        You don't think about having to pay the mortgage to fund the current war.
    
        You hear a gentle, polite voice
        A voice we've all heard at least once in our life; a voice from within that tells you...
        hey, hey... 
        You're so lucky!
        I'm so lucky... I'm so lucky!
    
        To me, fishing is like washing, a baptism.
        The water of the river, if you let it work, will take away all your thoughts
        and perhaps even all your sins.
        Including the original sin which is the one that pisses me off the most, pure judicial harassment.
    
        The water of the river, if you let it work, will wash away all your thoughts
        and perhaps even all your sins and put you back into the world anew,
        it fixes everything for you.
    
        And so I thought, let's give a fishing rod to all these people who are paralyzed by power.
        Let's give them the possibility to be alone with themselves,
        let's help them forget that they're irreplaceable.
        It will help them. It will help us.
    
        Fishing might seem a small and trivial thing, but it's a return to simple things, 
        to the fundamentals we are losing.
    
        Well, fishing gave me a great chance to hear that polite voice, 
        that gentle voice, that voice that tells you...
    
        Hey, you're so lucky!
    
        I'm so lucky, I'm so lucky!
        We're so lucky, we are so lucky!
    
        But...
    
        But every time I hear that voice I'm a little ashamed and I'm almost embarrassed.
        So then I thought, we must be really messed up if we are ashamed of feeling good.
    
        Maybe this is why I'm broken, perhaps this is why I don't go fishing, 
        because I'm afraid of realizing that if I want...
        if I really want... 
        I can feel good.

~~~
chaseha
Wow. Thank you for sharing that.

~~~
acangiano
Thank you for your encouraging comment. It motivated me to make it into an
actual video: [https://youtu.be/4aK6_0psCW4](https://youtu.be/4aK6_0psCW4)

------
wallace_f
In one paragraph:

>85 percent of workers worldwide hate their jobs

>Anything that restores hope becomes worth the exercise.

In other words: Many may hate their livelihoods, but liberation can be scary.

Personally, I was once of the benefit of having mediocre tech skills and an
employer who paid ridiculously well for them. But when I started having
problems with stalking, break-ins and intentional ill will, they told me to
just leave. Obviously, a nightmare situation in life.

The journey since has led me around the world on experiences I'd never have
had being stuck in office buildings and airports, and I actually wouldn't
trade them. And while I wouldn't wish tyranny on anyone else, with a certain
mindset you can look evil and misfortune in the face and decide you are not
going to have your fate decided by it. I suspect that even without living on
the receiving end of psychopathy, this is still the worst part of unemployment
for many: the hopelessness in having your fate be determined by what can seem
like external forces.

~~~
m0zg
If you don't have the means, it's not really "liberation". We are only
nominally "free". You have to pay real estate taxes even if you do absolutely
nothing, never get out of the house, and don't use any infrastructure or
services. And if you don't, you'll very quickly find yourself under the
bridge. My fantasy (which my wife doesn't share) is to one day find a place so
deep in the boonies that no government official would even know about it, and
live there Agafia Lykova style with no connection to the outside world. I
doubt places like that exist in the US anymore. But they do exist in other
countries.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agafia_Lykova](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agafia_Lykova)

~~~
Waterluvian
I wonder if it's part of the social contract that everything society provided
to get you here, one of the many payments is you have to stick around and be
part of society for the next young you.

I'm thinking about: what would happen if droves of people fled into the forest
to live. Could society function without them? How many?

~~~
m0zg
I'm pretty sure it would still function. If nothing else they aren't a drag on
societal resources anymore. If society is so useful, it should only be better
off when people leave for the greener pastures or Siberian tundra.

My main issue is not with societal contract. It's with the notion that we're
somehow "free" when we're most certainly not free. Stop paying the state and
men with guns will show up on your door step and take your shit. That doesn't
sound like freedom to me.

~~~
badpun
> I'm pretty sure it would still function. If nothing else they aren't a drag
> on societal resources anymore. If society is so useful, it should only be
> better off when people leave for the greener pastures or Siberian tundra.

A lot of these people would come crawling back to the civilization begging for
help if their life depended on it. Which it probably will as they get older
and sick. On a large scale, millions of people who contributed nothing to the
society, but then demand expensive medical help would not work well.

~~~
m0zg
Most would not last very long I agree. But I don't think that those that find
the hermit existence more to their liking (and can sustain such an existence
for an extended period of time) would "come crawling back" or anything like
that. Once my kid is out of the house, I don't really care about not kicking
the bucket a little sooner if by doing so I could live out my last decade or
two in peace and without having to deal with the daily stream of bovine manure
that "civilization" entails.

~~~
badpun
Quick death in old age is one of the better scenarios. Worse things are:
chronic pain, slowly losing ability to function (be it neurological or just
joints giving up etc.) and also witnessing the same things in your spouse.
Traditional cultures deal with it to a degree by children taking care of
sick/senile parents, but here it won’t be the case.

