Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Have Taken Up Farming

dylan.gr

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 166 posts

Re: Have Taken Up Farming

#101

Post by krapp »

modo_mario wrote: post #99
moron4hire wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He loves you and only he can truly love you. And if you don't love him first, you're the problem and you're going to end up in a place of eternal torment. Don't make him do this to you. He doesn't want to send you to hell. Oh wait, no, he's not the one sending you to hell, he's just not going to save you from hell. Yeah, that's it. Only his love can save you from yourself , see. It's a cult. If God were real, he'd be…

I'm an agnostic leaning towards atheist and might be wrong but I believe that definition of hell isn't originally accepted, agreed upon, etc and even got some initial backlash at least up until people started iterating a bit much on dante's inferno. But organized religion is a bit of a memetic social phenomenon in many ways. Rather than eternal torment (and heaven) it was originally a bit more vague and esotheric. No…

Yes like every other concept in the religion, including the nature and morality of God, the nature of the afterlife and divine punishment and reward has evolved over time. Because it isn't real. It's folklore and mythology.

The ancient Israelites originally believed in Sheol[0,1], an afterlife where everyone went, regardless of their morality. The modern concept of Hell is a political construct meant to answer the problem of evil and the absence of God's justice in times of persecution[2..4].

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUCW-PMBvKE

[2]https://old.reddit.com/r/AcademicBiblical/comments/1fsatrp/o...

[3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEOj-ceCy58&app=desktop

[4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42eoA2-kzO0

Re: Have Taken Up Farming

#102

Post by TheCapeGreek »

lukan wrote: post #22
laszlojamf wrote: post #3

I tried doing the same thing, happy to see it worked out for somebody! I just didn't have the capital or social safety net to get the farm off the ground, so I eventually had to sell the farm and go back to coding. Someday though...

I have the feeling, they do not make a profit out of it. This blogpost might generate more profits, but I doubt they are even close to being profitable and have other income/savings.

Most definitely.

Emigrating halfway across the world is not cheap in the first place.

Greece is also not cheap for where it stands on the economic level compared to the average income, especially back in 2018 when Dylan did it, and especially for property even outside of urban areas. Euboea is not super remote either, it's about an hour or two's drive from Athens depending where you go.

So sure, the farm might not make money, but I would wager he had a good amount saved up between him and his family to make the transition possible.

Re: Have Taken Up Farming

#104

Post by TheCapeGreek »

tock wrote: post #89

Achieve FIRE. Then you can afford to explore different lifestyles without fear. The software industry will always exist if you want to come back.

Sure, waste a decade or two and then live your real life.

FIRE is a nice idea, but in the pure sense it is really just the idea of deferring the life you really want to live. You might die before you get there.

The fisherman and businessman story come to mind here.

Re: Have Taken Up Farming

#105

Post by dyauspitr »

NoBeardMarch wrote: post #16
reincarnate0x14 wrote: post #6

I'm happy this person found a way to live that's meaningful to him, but I grew up as a farmer. You're coming back to something we've known a long time. If a god is what let's you get there, then good, let god keep you whole. But this is what the classics of stoicism (in the literal sense of both) have been telling us the whole time. We make our own meaning, and money isn't it. Go and grow things. Raise things. Build…

It's honestly quite interesting to me how this presents. I mean: Yes, people should ultimately pursue some form of happiness, but for me that happiness is genuinely doing software engineering work, and I do not think we should demonize the 9-5 office-job. In my opinion it gets too much flack, and the "move to a farm"-dream becomes some kinds of utopic ideal, which I really do not believe it is. I have worked much hea…

For me atleast, being busy walking around and driving tractors alone all day is infinitely more rewarding than working with a group of people on minutia that takes constant collaboration.

Re: Have Taken Up Farming

#106

Post by TheCapeGreek »

darkwater wrote: post #83
ironbound wrote: post #7

So they hit a mid-life crisis, and rather then take small steps they read the bible and move to an island to start farming, I wish them luck.

Reading the description of his previous life, I think there is some background issue/reason that should have been addressed, rather than just go farming. I hope he is and will be happy for a long time now though. I have an acquaintance - not into IT at all - that did something similar, went to work in a solo eco-farming project (no fertilizers, just let the soil rest, no pesticides obviously, I'm not sure if he went…

Agreed, I do get the feeling there's a lot more underlying the author's problems than "just" extreme burnout at a deskjob. Software has been a relatively high leverage career path in the last decade; surely there were other paths he could have taken before hitting an absolute wall.

As other commenters have pointed out, this does seem like going from one extreme to another - especially once religion gets involved.

I wish Dylan well, though I do hope some deeper, more moderate self reflection takes place at some point.

Re: Have Taken Up Farming

#107

Post by dyauspitr »

exq wrote: post #97
abc123abc123 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every son of a farmer I ever met, _never_ want to go back to that crappy life of sleepless nights and hard toil. Every Web 3.0, leftist, tech bro I ever met, idolize the farmin lifestyle and see before them a hippy commune where free love is practiced. I never ever seen that, or heard about the leftist tech bro who actually did it.

I did it. I grow organic market/CSA produce and provide opportunities for special needs individuals on the farm. I go to bed dog-tired, I make a fraction of what I would in software dev these days, but every single day is rewarding, and my resting heart rate is in the high 40s/low 50s without going to the gym. No jira tickets, no sleepless nights slamming caffeine during a sprint, no out of touch execs forcing me to…

Can you compare the actual income between the two?

Re: Have Taken Up Farming

#108

Post by judahmeek »

ggm wrote: post #71
NoBeardMarch wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I generally do not pursue happiness, I try to pursue purpose. Life is peaks and valleys, the only permanence being that nothing really persists. Writing code is also working with your hands. It produces real world effects which even if you cannot observe them directly still provide societal benefit: The "impact" of this can in many cases be much larger than a manual job.

I think your leading sentence is a false Dichotomy for many people. Pursuit of happiness doesn't imply being in a state of bliss all the time. Stoics are allowed to be happy too.

> Pursuit of happiness doesn't imply being in a state of bliss all the time.

Sure, correcting "pursuit of happiness" to "pursuit of contentment/fulfillment/purpose" is pedantic, but it makes me happy ;p

It's also a connotative reminder to ourselves & others to seek rewards with longer time horizons

Re: Have Taken Up Farming

#109

Post by erelong »

I've had this kind of idea when I was thinking about becoming a teacher

that maybe in the future it will be more common to have a split career of, in the 40 hrs work week tradition, manual labor / trade for ~20 hrs/week and a "cognitive" job at like ~20 hrs/week (or however many hours)

This would allow workers to exercise both mind and body

Re: Have Taken Up Farming

#110

Post by [deleted] »

NoBeardMarch wrote: post #16
reincarnate0x14 wrote: post #6

I'm happy this person found a way to live that's meaningful to him, but I grew up as a farmer. You're coming back to something we've known a long time. If a god is what let's you get there, then good, let god keep you whole. But this is what the classics of stoicism (in the literal sense of both) have been telling us the whole time. We make our own meaning, and money isn't it. Go and grow things. Raise things. Build…

It's honestly quite interesting to me how this presents. I mean: Yes, people should ultimately pursue some form of happiness, but for me that happiness is genuinely doing software engineering work, and I do not think we should demonize the 9-5 office-job. In my opinion it gets too much flack, and the "move to a farm"-dream becomes some kinds of utopic ideal, which I really do not believe it is. I have worked much hea…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN