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Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

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Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#251

Post by dasmoth »

jqm wrote: post #39

Hilarious... I grew up on a large agriculture operation miles from town. I hated it. My friends all got to do cool stuff like skateboard and go to the mall. I had to have a milk cow instead. I couldn't wait to grow up and get away and live in a city. I was going to be an electrical engineer. Instead I became an agronomist. I worked on some different types of farms and although it was OK it wasn't exactly what I wante…

As someone who grew up on "a few acres and a big garden" but currently lives in town, I'd say there's a pretty big difference there.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#252

Post by juliangregorian »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #236
jorgeleo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The farm life works for some people" I agree. I couldn't do farm, I have bad allergies to pollen, dust, and too much time under the sun and I become red as a lobster, and it is painful But programming is what I love to do. So I will say "The programmer life works for some people" I wouldn't call the original article "The death of a programmer", I would call it "The born of a farmer". He figure out were he feels happ…

As much as we "say" we love programming and farming if ever we became so filthy rich that we could pay other people to do these things for us... we would. I've never heard of a tech billionaire profess his love of programming so much that he's diving right back into the trenches. We're all human, we may love programming and farming, but let's be real, programming and farming are still work and we're all working towar…

Anecdotal, but Mark Zuckerberg was (and may still be) committing code at Facebook very recently. Some of us actually love programming for its own sake.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#253

Post by iagooar »

yellowapple wrote: post #224
iagooar wrote: post #28

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and this post definitely gives me some motivation. I'm a programmer who loves to code and build stuff, learning new programming languages and frameworks, discussing about architecture, etc. I love shipping new features and making customers happy. BUT inside of me a desire has been growing to go back to the roots, to live a life closer to the nature. I feel the need to spend…

Count me in. For a specific location recommendation, there are quite a few existing agriculturally-oriented towns that are pushing hard to get a tech scene going. Of particular note (and one in my neck of the woods - figuratively and literally) is Loyalton, CA, USA, which has been pushing for a "tech-and-rec" environment (which sounds a lot like what you're describing, though with the "farming" component replaced wit…

I'm pretty sure that finding the right place could have a huge impact on the success of this project. Maybe even having a group of 10-20 "tech" families willing to relocate to a small town could have enough power to negotiate with local government.

Thanks for the info!

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#254

Post by andyroid »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #236
jorgeleo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The farm life works for some people" I agree. I couldn't do farm, I have bad allergies to pollen, dust, and too much time under the sun and I become red as a lobster, and it is painful But programming is what I love to do. So I will say "The programmer life works for some people" I wouldn't call the original article "The death of a programmer", I would call it "The born of a farmer". He figure out were he feels happ…

As much as we "say" we love programming and farming if ever we became so filthy rich that we could pay other people to do these things for us... we would. I've never heard of a tech billionaire profess his love of programming so much that he's diving right back into the trenches. We're all human, we may love programming and farming, but let's be real, programming and farming are still work and we're all working towar…

"Billionaire" might be a stretch but there's plenty of people in tech that wouldn't need to work at all if they didn't want to. It would surprise me if Torvalds et. al would have to wait for retirement before they didn't actually _have_ to work.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#255

Post by randomdata »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #236
jorgeleo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The farm life works for some people" I agree. I couldn't do farm, I have bad allergies to pollen, dust, and too much time under the sun and I become red as a lobster, and it is painful But programming is what I love to do. So I will say "The programmer life works for some people" I wouldn't call the original article "The death of a programmer", I would call it "The born of a farmer". He figure out were he feels happ…

As much as we "say" we love programming and farming if ever we became so filthy rich that we could pay other people to do these things for us... we would. I've never heard of a tech billionaire profess his love of programming so much that he's diving right back into the trenches. We're all human, we may love programming and farming, but let's be real, programming and farming are still work and we're all working towar…

I guess it is impossible to say for sure, but I feel like if I had billions, I would still want to farm commercially – just with much nicer equipment than I have now. Something like 30% of farmers are 65+ years of age. I would suggest it is not because they cannot afford to retire, especially with the price of land these days, but because it is something they love to do.

Anecdotally, a neighbour of mine made millions with the sale of his company (not tech) and then started farming with those proceeds.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#256

Post by jalcazar »

iagooar wrote: post #28

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and this post definitely gives me some motivation. I'm a programmer who loves to code and build stuff, learning new programming languages and frameworks, discussing about architecture, etc. I love shipping new features and making customers happy. BUT inside of me a desire has been growing to go back to the roots, to live a life closer to the nature. I feel the need to spend…

So interesting!

I would love to do something like this

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#257

Post by declan »

kenrikm wrote: post #237
declan wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I've been looking to purchase some land just outside the Bay Area to build a small cabin... You can do this in the Bay Area itself, though in general the closer you want to be to a supermarket, bank, etc. the more you'll pay. If you're west of Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View, Cupertino and cross the 280, you encounter rural areas very quickly. And if you head far enough into the hills, prices begin to fall rapid…

Yup, also if you head south you get more open ground and the prices fall rapidly. For example I found a some land within an hour of San Jose with 100acres for 200k. The trick is finding a lot with good water access. I'm up in San Mateo so it's a bit more of a drive. Ideally I could get somthing within an hour and a half drive at a reasonable price.

That's cheaper than I thought it would be! But if you're trying to get to a job in San Mateo from someplace like Gilroy or Hollister, that would be a bit of a hellish commute. Maybe you could pull it off more easily if you work off-hours? Also if you're within an hour's drive of San Jose you may be paying Silicon Valley prices for new construction, which tends not to be cheap.

But if you're willing to live that far from work and can find water and a nice lot, I'd give it a try. Also with a private pilot certificate you could fly an older ~$20K Cessna from South County or Hollister to KSQL pretty quickly on most days -- certainly a fraction of your effective groundspeed in 101 traffic -- and bike from there to work.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#258

Post by hotterpop »

kross wrote: post #141
jroseattle wrote: post #81

I grew up on a farm. Not surprised to see this decision in the slightest. Farming is tough -- physically, financially, and in the end emotionally. But it is still a very rewarding life. I can remember sitting on my grandfather's lap, riding on his John Deere two-cylinder (it was called a Johnny Popper.) Pre-school? I went to pre-farming. I was probably 3 years old the first time I rode a tractor. By the time I was 8,…

I also spent a good amount of time on the farm. I sit here, a successful tech entrepreneur that now never has to work again after an exit. I achieved my life goals (at least the ones I set in my twenties). I took time off to break the need to work, then once again I'm on a new adventure starting a new tech company. I really enjoy my daily tech challenges, but how many lifetime memories have I made in my tech career?…

I've thought about this a lot. I'm not a tech billionaire or anything, but I make pretty decent money for being a year out of college. My parents always had a large garden when I was growing up, roughly a half acre, and we kept an assortment of birds and other production animals.

I don't think I could ever commit myself to being a full time farmer- not being able to take a break would kill me. That said, there's a lot you can do when you work from home and have a little land. You can cram an incredible amount of growth into a half acre plot, or even a quarter acre- there are a lot of microgardeners in Seattle that work full time jobs and make gardening their passion.

Myself, I'd like to have a couple acres to work with, and try to eliminate as much of the grocery store from my diet as I can. A life without fresh vegetables isn't a life to me, and I can't imagine raising my children without the company of animals.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#259

Post by crimsonalucard »

juliangregorian wrote: post #252
crimsonalucard wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as we "say" we love programming and farming if ever we became so filthy rich that we could pay other people to do these things for us... we would. I've never heard of a tech billionaire profess his love of programming so much that he's diving right back into the trenches. We're all human, we may love programming and farming, but let's be real, programming and farming are still work and we're all working towar…

Anecdotal, but Mark Zuckerberg was (and may still be) committing code at Facebook very recently. Some of us actually love programming for its own sake.

Dabbling in coding and being in the trenches are two different things.

Look up Bill Gates. Unlike Zuckerberg, who was just a mediocre programmer, Gates was actually an elite programmer who "loved" programming. Nowadays he mostly travels the world with his family, and does philanthropy.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#260

Post by juliangregorian »

wcummings wrote: post #182
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is purely a suburban problem and typical of the short sightedness of suburban development, which often corrupts the political process because a mandated retail lot is one less high-profit residential home they can't sell. Here in the city, there are shops everywhere. Mix use residential is fairly common with retail on the ground floor and condos/apartments up top. This has created a glut of storefronts with vary…

I'd way rather have walking access to smaller independent grocers and bodegas than a mediocre specialty food store like Trader Joes with a big parking lot.

Where I live, we're swimming in "bodegas", which are full of soda, canned food, processed white bread -- nothing you'd want to eat. Most of the people who can afford to or who commute shop at... Trader Joe's.
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