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Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

hello-world.io

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Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#91

Post by EliRivers »

steego wrote: post #43
shasta wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That explains why the mega store doesn't want a local shop but not why there is no local shop.

Many Americans don't see the value in a local shop because local shops tend to be more expensive and offer fewer choices. It's easier to consolidate your errands and hit a big grocery store and a big box store.

That conflicts with a different cultural "fact" I have about US citizens. They love convenience (for example, "convenience stores") and willingly pay extra for it.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#92

Post by JustSomeNobody »

I couldn't do this; I'm too addicted to always being "on". I'm constantly checking my work phone for email (even after hours and on weekends) just to see what's going on (I'm a remote worker). I constantly look at my phone (reading everything and anything; not using FB as I'm not very social that way). I lie down to go to sleep at night and my brain is literally buzzing. My focus is shit. The other day I thought I'd try the pomodoro technique to help with that, but proceeded to spend 6 hours trying to find just the right timer. Then ended up writing my own. But there's no way in Hell I could stop being always "on".

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#93

Post by iagooar »

tsunamifury wrote: post #69
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…

You may have to accept a world where you need other people besides engineers.

I wasn't thinking about excluding non-tech people (my girlfriend has no tech background). I was just thinking about building a company with like-minded people with some technical skills and experience, while living together and working on a farm, including the families which may or may not have a technical background. Sure there might be a need for marketing or sales people as well, but that's a bit too detailed for now, considering it is nothing more than an idea yet ;)

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#94

Post by iagooar »

tsunamifury wrote: post #86
dasmoth wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

World, maybe. But in terms of building a somewhat-self-sufficient community -- which seems to be what's being suggested here -- why wouldn't all-engineers work?

Land management, cooking, cleaning, child-rearing, teaching, schooling, animal husbandry, community health, repairs, safety, upkeep, music/arts/entertainment, policy... the list goes on And while many engineers seem to believe they can do anything with applied knowledge -- practice and execution are two very different things.

It doesn't have to be 100% self-sufficient, that's not what I meant. I was thinking more about a community of families living around the same farm and company.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#97

Post by ccallebs »

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…

I'm in. Not at all joking / exaggerating. My wife and I would love something like this. We are currently looking to switch cities with no specific desire for one place so the iron is hot.

I'd not limit it to engineers though -- just makers in general.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#98

Post by dudifordMann »

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…

That sounds amazing. Lately I've been picking up hobbies, like wood working or building more hardware centered projects because day-to-day I design and produce software, which itself is intangible.

My girlfriend is from upstate New York, and her father is a farmer. It's backbreaking work to run a farm if you're mostly by yourself, hiring farm hands when necessary, and when ROI is sufficient. Yet, at the same time, the "Mega farms" of corporations tend to use a lot of hands BUT also inappropriate a lot of tech.

There seems to be a middle ground where, like you mentioned, a tech+farm group could be formed either members own their own small plots, or own one together. The burden of tech costs could be spread amongst the members, but the tech can be incorporated to satisfy the intellectual engineering approach to things, as well as the "close to nature" manual labor wants.

I feel like I'm rambling... Anyway, this is sounding very much like a hippy commune, but I am not sure if that bothers me at this point.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#99

Post by coldtea »

nkozyra wrote: post #24
torrent-of-ions wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in the suburbs and hated it. I hated the idea of having to go long distances to get milk and eggs. I'm happy now in a city centre.

I have this feeling that kids tend to hate where they grow up due to all of the perceived failings and things they're missing out on. I grew up in a relaxed beach town in Florida, and hated it. My family all moved from NYC and fell in love in a heartbeat. Something about not being in the same place for too long applies here, too.

>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.

Re: Death of a Programmer, Life of a Farmer

#100

Post by sredne »

torrent-of-ions wrote: post #19
_halgari wrote: post #9

It's funny to see this stuff go full-circle. My parents left the city in the early 90's to move to a small WI farm in the middle of nowhere (15min to get to a town of 5000 people). I can see the appeal of a simpler life. But the funny thing is, as a kid, I hated it. My parents got tired of the suburbs, I longed for it. They longed for simplicity, I longed for convenience. I hated the idea of having to drive long dist…

I grew up in the suburbs and hated it. I hated the idea of having to go long distances to get milk and eggs. I'm happy now in a city centre.

I grew up in the suburbs also, and hated it. As a kid, you have no freedom until the age of 16 where you have the POSSIBILITY of owning a car/borrowing your parent's car. We had bikes, but the nearest anything was 1-1.5 miles away, and there were very little sidewalks or safe places to bike. Nothing was convenient without a car.

I went to school in a small/medium city (Champaign/Urbana) and loved it. It was the perfect mix of having a city and space for a small suburban life. I lived in a house that was off campus, and was within walking distance to downtown and busing distance to the bars/main campus. It was peaceful and crazy when I wanted it to be.

I now live in Chicago and while I love the convenience of everything(huge advocate of all things public transit), I miss being able to easily just disconnect from urban life.

My next move will probably be somewhere warmer, but it'll probably be in a small/medium sized city for sure.

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