Flipping burgers

The ad "Help Wanted" at a burger joint that I frequent caught my eye yesterday. What if I quit my job and work at the burger place? I suspect the experience will be a very important lesson in my life.

First, I will be closer to reality. People in my industry have a very distorted world view. I started working in the midst of a market downturn. Yet, I was making more money than my classmates who slaved away as engineers. Those who were in med school were living around the poverty line. People around me at work were talking about holiday in exotic locations, buying second vacation home (Not second home but second VACATION home) in Southern France, converting old church in Austria into yet another vacation home. Weekends was about going to parties with other high-fliers, getting the boat out...etc. Let's take a minute to do the maths, they probably need to pay about USD 20K to 30K a month (back then!) for the mortgages around the world. I could only think of owners of conglomerates or criminals to be able to rake in that much money each month. If I flip burgers for a living, I will have to learn to live on a USD 1000 salary (if I am lucky). Guess what? That's the salary that lots of people in this city have to support a family of 4!

Second, I will have a real skill. When I was a trainee, I was told that we do really sophisticated work that requires genius to do. For a long time, I kind of believed in the I am smarter than most portion. That speech made me feel good and why shouldn't I believe in it? Then, I had a child. She pulled me back to planet Earth. A mother who is illiterate knows how to read the body language of an infant better than I do. I review my work again, lots of it is to move things around to come with a "solution". Not something that adds value to the world. If anything, it's making the rich richer... If I flip burger, at least I will learn not to spoil someone else's lunch.

Third, do I need a third? Lived in fantasy world for long enough and should really reconnect with other homo sapiens who got real problems to worry about.