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My product is my garden

herman.bearblog.dev

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Re: My product is my garden

#131

Post by noxplode »

silexia wrote: post #104
telesilla wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The families I know who live best are permaculturalists. Visiting them for dinner is always a treat. It's hard work though, and like others they have supplemental income. I imagine this old man knows well the trick: an independent life is impossible unless you have enough healthy young people around to do the labour.

I agree it's hard work. Every project seems like it will take an hour at the outset, but ends up taking eight hours due to a wide variety of unexpected real world complications. I traded in a beautiful city home for 106 acres at the beginning of the pandemic and am still glad I did. People have a fantasy picture of the tradeoff though... In reality, in rural places you have less social interaction and the people are…

Supposedly, small market garden farms can be quite profitable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbHwAfHQA9M

Re: My product is my garden

#132

Post by npsimons »

elliotec wrote: post #28

I love this and I aspire to eventually, if I come out of the grinder with any ambition, drive, or passion left, do something similar. I abhor big corpratism, and love the way software can be independent and disconnected from it, if not usually in practice. I deeply admire Basecamp's style of "you don't need VC money, keep it small, keep building something useful that gets you paid." I want that someday but someday is…

I second all of this, and this line from the fine article resonated deeply:

> That’s what I want from my products. I want to putter about, feel connected to the process, and have fun doing so.

I too have the same "writer's block" issue for ideas. I've got some, but I dunno, it just seems so hopeless to gamble and go that route.

For now, I've managed to scrimp and invest enough from the day job, I may just quit and putter on projects until I hit on something. If I don't make enough to cover costs, I can try freelancing/consulting. Worst case, I can go back to the corporate grind.

> I'm not much of an idea guy. I can build stuff. I can get really passionate about how things "should be" and implement process and infrastructure to get there. But whatever "it" is, just hasn't come to me yet.

Me too, friend. Me too.

Re: My product is my garden

#134

Post by [deleted] »

jimbokun wrote: post #105
telesilla wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The families I know who live best are permaculturalists. Visiting them for dinner is always a treat. It's hard work though, and like others they have supplemental income. I imagine this old man knows well the trick: an independent life is impossible unless you have enough healthy young people around to do the labour.

"an independent life is impossible unless you have enough healthy young people around to do the labour." Or about $1 million stashed in index funds, give or take based on cost of living in your location.

[deleted]

Re: My product is my garden

#135

Post by slothtrop »

wombatmobile wrote: post #76

Pangloss, who was as inquisitive as he was argumentative, asked the old man what the name of the strangled Mufti was. ‘I don’t know,’ answered the worthy man, ‘and I have never known the name of any Mufti, nor of any Vizier. I have no idea what you’re talking about; my general view is that people who meddle with politics usually meet a miserable end, and indeed they deserve to. I never bother with what is going on in…

Love the quote and book, but only half-way agree with the sentiment, unless you stretch the analogy of what the garden is. Simple living/work won't in itself quench or stave off desire and passions. If that were true farmers would be a happier demographic. Desire never really disappears, it's at best channeled through engagement / flow, which dovetails with the fact that man's work is also the strongest predictor of his happiness. I imagine, but don't know, that those who want for nothing are not complacent, and those who are complacent can never consume enough.

Re: My product is my garden

#136

Post by meatmanek »

OJFord wrote: post #41
yesenadam wrote: post #19

> This is my garden, and I intend to putter. I was about about to correct that use of "putter" as a typo, but it seems it's a USAism. Never seen that before. I'd always thought machines/engines putter, gardeners potter. I put it to the super-accurate Purported Google Results Test: putter in my garden - 7 million potter in my garden - 142 million putter around - 9 million potter around - 363 million putter about - 49…

Ha, glad I'm not the only one, I went directly to Wiktionary after finishing the article, which doesn't mark it 'chiefly US' or anything, and gives RP IPA. Which contains another surprise, for me anyway - it's not pronounced like the golf club, but starting like 'put' (that over there) or 'foot'.

Apple's Dictionary.app, which for me pulls from the New Oxford American Dictionary, does mention that potter is the British version:

> put·ter³ | ˈpədər | (British potter) > verb [no object] North American > occupy oneself in a desultory but pleasant manner, doing a number of small tasks or not concentrating on anything particular: early morning is the best time of the day to putter around in the garden. > • [with adverbial of direction] move or go in a casual, unhurried way: the duck putters on the surface of the pond.

and defines potter as:

> verb British > another term for putter³.

(It also has all 3 definitions of putter - golf, engine, gardening - pronounced the same way: ˈpədər)

Re: My product is my garden

#137

Post by wahern »

vageli wrote: post #127
raintrees wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or around $600K in down payments in cash flowing rental properties in the US... My wife and I spent around $75K to get approximately $1K a month in cash flow (5 doors, $200 each)...

$75k for five doors? Might I ask whereabouts? That seems ridiculously cheap per unit.

Not impossible in impoverished areas. A rural trailer park, some section 8 housing in a bad part of town, or maybe they scooped up some single-family units at the bottom of the housing market crash.

Re: My product is my garden

#138

Post by 1MoreThing »

Rumudiez wrote: post #115
raintrees wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or around $600K in down payments in cash flowing rental properties in the US... My wife and I spent around $75K to get approximately $1K a month in cash flow (5 doors, $200 each)...

I think the topic is independence, not being a parasite on others who are less well off than you.

It is kind of hilarious how often rent-seeking behavior is called out as evil when it comes to software companies, but actual rent-seeking with real estate is seen as virtuous investment.

Re: My product is my garden

#139

Post by raunometsa »

justusthane wrote: post #117

This is a little off-topic, but related: I've done hobbyist webdev for a long time, but only HTML/CSS/JS/PHP. I have an idea for a web app I'd like to build--would you folks recommend Rails or Django, and why? I have very little background with either Ruby or Python, so the language choice itself isn't a deciding factor for me (although I have slightly more interest in Python).

You're been working with PHP, why do you want to switch to Rails or Django?

Re: My product is my garden

#140

Post by raunometsa »

I'm too feeling like this more and more. I get an email every time a new user signes up and I will manually check how they are doing on my site.

If I see they may need my help, I email them (people really love this kind of proactive help).

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