In trash, an unlikely muse
Nima Samimi has been a chef, a baker, an apprentice carpenter, a muscular therapist, a touring folk singer, and a community organizer. He has written a prize-winning thesis on the Haitian revolution of 1791 and is studying to become a historian of the Middle East. Since his first two paying gigs at age 11 — collecting maple sap in the winter, and working as a library page in the summer — he has held 43 jobs. “Specialization,” the science fiction author Robert Heinlein once wrote, “is for insects.” He could have been talking about Samimi. The 33-year-old Iranian American may be the most overqualified trash collector around. “I think it was a necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention situation,” said Samimi, who struck out on his own at 17, reflecting on his many mini-careers. “But also, I think like most children I was born with a natural curiosity about all things.” Unlike most kids, he never grew...