Originally posted by skerbitz
Actually YOU missed the point ...
The title of this thread is finding a career that doesn't require people.
Cash responded to my earlier post with the questions that I listed above.
I simply asked him the same questions about his career as a trader. As a prop trader ALL of the questions he asked me are relevant and valid when asked of a (prop) trader as well.
In any case, this is one of those mental masturbation threads where nothing every gets any clearer because the original question / definition gets all mucked up (i.e. what exactly is meant by 'doesn't require people').
I stand by my original post. Of all the jobs I've ever had, by far the the two that require the least amount of interaction with human beings have been trader and computer programmer.
I am sure there are others, but since I haven't done them, I don't feel qualified to comment.
Skerbitz,
I never meant that what *I* do doesn't involve communicating with people. I look down at my phone some days and see 50+ incoming phone calls (and that doesn't count out going calls). I like trading and I like managing. Managing gives me the people contact that trading is lacking.
BTW, I came from a programming background and these are the things I encountered quite often that involve people:
Interviewing to get a job
Selling a custom program to a client
Initial desing meeting
Design review
Co-ordination of interfaces with other systems
Code Walk-thrus
Demonstrations of the app to the point thus far
Working with QA people on how it should work.
The dreaded time-reporting into 50 meaningless categories.
I've done it as an employee, a contractor, and self-employed for clients as well as marketing my own canned app.
Even the guys who you lock in a room and through Pizza and Mountain Dew to have to communicate with someone. (Quite often not fun communicating with those guys, particularly when you tell them it's more important that they take an hour to change the color scheme of a window so that color blind people can see it, than take 3 days to re-write an algorithm to shave 20ms off the processing speed.)
I still maintain my position as well, but horse-race gambling and recylable redeeming seem to also meet the criteria so far. (Just can't nail down if there really are successful horse racing people).
or just living