spent 2 weeks chasing studios and every one of them said not right now. then one came back a week later and said yeah actually lets do it
turns out they just needed a week to think about it. sales isnt one conversation. its usually seven
anybody else experience this with their saas?
the apprentice and even jman wages are brutal and nobody talks about it(sounds primarily here in Ontario)
everyone says trades are starving to hire but the hiring happens at apprentice rates. which means you spend the first couple years learning on the job while making similar to your friends working as managers in fast food
the money gets good as a journeyman but "gets good in 4 years" is a long time when youre 19 and broke lol(I’m not 19 and broke for clarification, I’m 24)
not saying skip it. saying dont believe the people who act like you show up and start making 40 an hour. thats not how it works
oh and shops paying under 30 even with years of experience and a red seal. most places around here are 25 to 30. the people telling you trades print money are the ones who own the shop. or they saw a youtube video about some guy in alberta pulling 80 an hour. its not like that everywhere
if you get lucky and land at a good shop you can do okay. skill on top of that and you can get by. but the luck part is the thing nobody talks about. you can be the best welder in the province and still get stuck at a shop that pays garbage because thats just whos hiring
cant move out on that wage. and if you do you learn what living like a slave actually looks like
tried a bunch of distros over the years. ubuntu, debian, manjaro, even tried arch twice and gave up. third time stuck
heres why it finally clicked
why arch this time: wanted a window manager setup and arch was the only one with good hyprland documentation. everywhere else felt like piecing together stuff from 2019 forum posts. the arch wiki actually has current information and that matters more than people admit. also liked that it ships bare bones. you build exactly what you need nothing more
what i actually use daily:
when im feeling lazy with frontend work ill open cursor for a bit. comes back to neovim eventually though
what almost made me leave: nvidia. if you have an nvidia card and you want wayland good luck. ive heard 2026 has improved compatibility but amd is still the smoother path for linux wayland
the part nobody talks about: people definitely do talk about the first few weeks being hell but nobody talks about the why. the arch install guide is thorough but it assumes you know what you dont know yet. thats the trap. you dont know what you dont know so you dont know what to google. everyone focuses on the brutal install but the real adjustment is the week after when you realize you have no idea how anything works
the second week is when it starts making sense. by month two you realize you actually understand your system for once instead of just hoping the update doesnt break it
would i recommend it: only if you actually want to know how your computer works. if you just want a computer that works get mint. if you want a computer that works the way you want it to work and youre willing to put in the time arch is worth it
for me the tradeoff was worth it. been 1.5 years now and nothing has broken that i didnt break myself