Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer • Hacker News Board

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#291

Post by sedachv » Tue, May 05, 2015, 10:51 PM UTC

declan wrote: post #257

kenrikm wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

Thanks a lot for the airplane tip, I had no idea you could get a decent Cessna 172 for 20-30k. That would certainly be an awesome commute.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#292

Post by bjwbell » Tue, May 05, 2015, 10:55 PM UTC

xrange wrote: post #239

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…

>I have bad allergies to pollen, dust Interestingly enough, if you had grown up on a farm, you many not have developed allergies... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20497148 https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=allergies+and+growing+u...

Key word /may/. I grew up in the backwoods of interior northern california.

And have terrible allergies. I take allergies shots, two nasal sprays, and antihistamines. They still only go away in the snow and rock above the treeline.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#293

Post by xkcd-sucks » Tue, May 05, 2015, 11:01 PM UTC

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #6

That bit about coming down with the 22 got to me a bit. I had a dog attack on my chicken flock last week and one of the last remaining birds was still alive but obviously dying. Even though I see them as livestock, not pets, it was still not easy to pick her up, break her neck to kill her quickly then stand back and watch it end. Never easy to kill something you're supposed to be taking care of.

>Never easy to kill something you're supposed to be taking care of.

I disagree-- Slaughtering them means you're no longer responsible for their health and wellbeing, so it comes as a huge relief. Kind of like sending your kids off to college.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#294

Post by tsunamifury » Tue, May 05, 2015, 11:03 PM UTC

solipsism wrote: post #189

tsunamifury wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think, comparatively, given all the human and computer driven computation to create simulations on a screen resulting in something 1/100,000,000th as complex as a sqft of rainforest... Yes its not real. Computation has been trapped inside boxes and tiny screens, virtualization with behaviors that don't even approach the richness and complexity of reality outside that box. Don't get me wrong, it's a noble and passio…

I'm sorry, but this makes no sense. given all the human and computer driven computation to create simulations on a screen resulting in something 1/100,000,000th as complex as a sqft of rainforest This is an absurd comparison. Besides being apples to oranges, besides being super arbitrary (where did you get 1 square foot?), besides being completely undefined (what kinds of simulations are you talking about?).. it does…

No.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#295

Post by sedachv » Tue, May 05, 2015, 11:06 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #163

mgob wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those fly-by-night establishments are what keep a neighborhood vibrant at night, though. I understand that's not what everyone is looking for, but all else being equal, a populated neighborhood is safer than an empty one.

In my neck of the woods, population density is not an issue. The decision by condo developers to dedicate the bottom floor to small retail storefronts has surprisingly become quite disruptive! I don't consider pawn shops and e-cig shops keeping things vibrant. Nice bars and clubs, restaurants, and unique retail do. Personally, I think pawn shops and payday loan stores are predatory and should be highly regulated if n…

> High margin junk like that edges out nicer stores because condo associations just want to go with the quick cash. For example, a lot of women here would love more boutique stores but the rent these stores can afford is being edged out by the guy selling $50 e-cigs.

I don't understand, you just claimed the rent is too low, now you are saying it's too high for boutiques.

> I'm okay letting the market sort it out.

You just wrote 4 paragraphs on why you're not ok with letting the market sort it out. The "market" (people who live in your neighborhood) is obviously supporting this "high margin junk." Maybe your neighbors aren't interested in overpriced boutique crap?

> Or maybe condo associations are learning that its within their interests to be more discriminating and vetting businesses that might affect their property values, the neighborhood feel, neighborhood safety, etc.

Let me tl;dr your post for you - "I don't like poor people."

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#296

Post by yellowapple » Tue, May 05, 2015, 11:17 PM UTC

joshmarlow wrote: post #283

iagooar wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Vertical farming sounds great. It could help getting started a farm where land is expensive. I love the open sourcing idea. 2) I love this idea! It could be a way of providing additional income for the farm. Classic farms often offer vacations for families and kids, I guess this would be a similar idea, but for engineers.

While super cool, the vertical farming idea may take more up-front capital and effort. Maybe a phased approach: start with traditional farming subsidized by 2) and build up funds and resources to eventually setup 1)? Anyone can work on the vertical farming ideas while they are there with the agreement that it's part of the project to released under Creative Commons (or similar license).

If we go with the idea some other commenter proposed of buying up a bunch of foreclosed properties in Detroit, at least some of that initial up-front capital and effort would be offset. You'd then just need to turn some abandoned factory or warehouse into a makeshift greenhouse.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#297

Post by gisenberg » Tue, May 05, 2015, 11:22 PM UTC

ianferrel wrote: post #277

gisenberg wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also a complexity explosion to factor in, and saying that there was a time before Google and Stack Overflow seems a bit dismissive of that. Chances are, your app today is built on at least a dozen dependencies that require documentation and reference lookup several times throughout any given day.

It doesn't take much work to save those offline. Sure, you miss out on StackOverflow's expertise, but if you really just need to refer to API documentation, that should be doable.

Point taken, but reference material can cover a lot more than API docs. Changes in dependencies, dependencies of dependencies, and their change in source over time are often critical pieces of information. Further, it's difficult to cover all possible material for dependencies that have been taken for granted; OS, HTTP server, drivers, and unexpected complications like OEM-level defects in specific revisions of hardware models are difficult to account for.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#298

Post by ciupicri » Tue, May 05, 2015, 11:22 PM UTC

jalcazar wrote: post #249

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…

No. Matthew Dillon doesn't need to work but keeps working on DragonFlyBSD. Also it is possible to live and work as in retirement http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/fisherman.html

> Matthew Dillon doesn't need to work but keeps working on DragonFlyBSD.

Source?

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#299

Post by coldtea » Tue, May 05, 2015, 11:25 PM UTC

xrange wrote: post #232

coldtea wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have this feeling that kids tend to hate where they grow up Even so, you don't hear as many kids hating on the big city as they hate on the suburbs or the countryside. I mean, kids hatred for the suburbs have inspired tons of movies and songs, for the city, not so much.

>Even so, you don't hear as many kids >tons of movies and songs ...this seems like self-selection bias, similar to I don't know anyone who voted for "X" in the last election. I'd present the country and western music genre as a counter-point, where there is a preference for non-urban living.

>...this seems like self-selection bias, similar to I don't know anyone who voted for "X" in the last election. I'd present the country and western music genre as a counter-point, where there is a preference for non-urban living.

Not many teenagers listen to "country and western"...

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#300

Post by ciupicri » Tue, May 05, 2015, 11:29 PM UTC

andyroid wrote: post #254

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…

"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.

Actually Linus Torvalds isn't that rich according to his post from Google+ [1]:

> Linus Torvalds: 3840x2160 resolution - it's the Dell 28" UHD panel - for $299 thanks to Microsoft's black Friday deal. Thanks MS!

> Vladimir Odessit: At a net-worth of $150M I wouldn't think that you would care for black friday deals :)

> Linus Torvalds: +Vladimir Odessit I wish. Not even close. My net worth means that I can happily avoid Walmart and feel good about myself, but it's nowhere near the number you seem to think it is.

[1]: https://plus.google.com/+LinusTorvalds/posts/4MwQKZhGkEr