FWIW, I agree with you. After the first .com crash, I worked as a welder in a shipyard for a couple of years. (Yay fallback skills!)
I actually enjoyed the work and my coworkers, but nothing gets around the fact that it was such a physically fatiguing job that I literally had no juice left for anything other than work, sleep, and work again.
One long-term benefit is that the stresses of working in tech bother me a lot less than they did before I had my welding experience. No matter how tough the current sprint, at least I'm not covered in leathers in the belly of a ship, worried that someone will disconnect my exhaust manifold and I'll die of CO2 poisoning!
I actually enjoyed the work and my coworkers, but nothing gets around the fact that it was such a physically fatiguing job that I literally had no juice left for anything other than work, sleep, and work again.
One long-term benefit is that the stresses of working in tech bother me a lot less than they did before I had my welding experience. No matter how tough the current sprint, at least I'm not covered in leathers in the belly of a ship, worried that someone will disconnect my exhaust manifold and I'll die of CO2 poisoning!