Hacker News Reader

Comment by evervevdww221 | Hacker News Reader

I have the impulse to become a hermit myself, fundamentally because I'm tired of living up to other people's ideologies: going through schools and finding a job in a cubical. getting married at the right age and then raising the right amount kids, saving for their college fund and then for retirement.

but why?

I can't help but compare with my surroundings, even I have quit Facebook for many years. I can't be myself when I'm around others, but become a money maker for things I don't need. I can't concentrate on what makes me happy.

I recall what made me happy. it was when I finally understood some papers, some equations, some code. I just want to find a quiet place to do these. I hope to become an awesome painter and a guitar player too.

I just want to have enough to survive and focus my energy on these things. I don't care if I have successful kids or fancy cars.

View on HN

A cubicle? You'd be lucky. Today's Modern, Dynamic, Collaborative workplace has no room for outmoded concepts of "personal space". Welcome to your new workspace: a cubic meter on a cafeteria style table in a sea of cafeteria tables. Join the team of tomorrow -- always chattering, always discussing, always collaborating to build a better future!

Now you need to get these stories done by end of sprint. We have a release in six weeks, people, let's get moving!

Wasn't that one of Dante's levels? Seventh Circle (Agile)

This is not necessarily agile. I think this is cargo cult software engineering: "collaboration", "teamwork" and "agile".

Wasn't Agile about doing less work?

Less unrealistic plans.

Less meetings - including informal.

Shorter meetings - mostly just daily standup - what I did, what I'm doing, any blockers.

Agile is defined as http://agilemanifesto.org/

Scrum with its artifacts/ceremonies like standup is a specific interpretation.

Scrum with its rigid artifacts/ceremonies is a complete negation of the basis of what's on the manifesto.

That's true, but -- especially if you read the 12 principles as well -- it's very clear that the intention is team-based software development with a lot of fine grained interaction (and an explicit rejection of remote work). Stuff like daily stand ups definitely go with the grain.

It would be interested to see how a variant that truly focussed on individuals rather than interaction could work.

Sure maybe it's not for EVERYBODY, but it's not always that bad. In 6 years of work at 4 companies, I've never had real work pressure, and 15 min a day for standup is not a tall order...

Trouble is at the end of the day we need food and shelter. Reading some really fascinating papers or code is great, and so are painting and playing guitar. Do all those things. But most everyone will have to work to live, and working a good job is easier with schooling, and you might meet this girl...

It seems like an artificial treadmill from afar, but IMO the underpinnings are fairly sound. You just have to find the flavor that suits you. Buying farmland and working in your fields 12 hours a day, is still an option :)

Buying farmland and working in your fields 12 hours a day, is still an option :)

Yeap. Or get some sheep and go graze them in the mountains. There are still people doing that in my Western European country. Plenty of free time to think, if that's what you really want.

Sheep farming looks like really hard work to me, raising animals on marginal land with tough weather thrown in is only for those who really want to do it.

I once watched a shepherd put his hand up a sheep's vagina to help with a birth during lambing time.

If you think it's an easy or fun job, you might want to spend some time doing it before committing.

This isn't the difficult or unpleasant bit of sheep farming, delivering a good lamb is actually wonderful. Sheep in pain, dead lambs, malformed lambs, drowned lambs - these are harder. Carrying injured sheep soaked to the skin in a force 9, that's bloody horrible. Doing it once in a while is invigorating but the grind, year after year all through the winter.

Food and shelter can be had relatively cheaply in the Western world, sure you might not be able to live in the centre of London or some hip place in SV but people on low wages mostly find a home.

I sometimes wonder if it would have been better to just accept an undemanding career and spend my spare time reading interesting papers or writing code. However, I did meet this girl ...

Buying farmland and working in your fields 12 hours a day, is still an option :)

As someone who's looking in that kind of direction at least semi-seriously, don't underestimate the cost of farmland, especially if you're hoping for land that's reasonably flat and fertile. There probably are places in the world where it remains a cheap option -- but few that are an easy move from the UK. Also, however close to self-sufficiency you come in terms of food, fuel, potentially clothing, there remain expenses that need to be paid in cash.

I'm somewhat hoping that one day I might find a balance between some paid work and some time in my own fields -- but don't expect it to be easy. In the mean time, I get a certain amount from the garden.

Oh yes, farmland is not cheap in much of the world. Unfortunately living your dream frequently takes work to attain.

One of the goals of adult life is to be able to find the things that one likes to do and find creative ways to do them, when the most straightforward way does not seem possible. I don't mean to offer any solutions to your situation, but this is something that made me feel a lot more control of my own life :)

You and I should go bowling sometime.

You don't have to. I sometimes feel similarly to you. I dropped out of college and am so happy I did. In high school my parents pushed me so hard. In college I was doing honors going for a 4.0. But now I just do freelance coding and live on very little. Sometimes I do coding for other people, but I have a lot of free time to code my own projects. I keep it that way on purpose

If your gonna live in society, you are completely dependent on other people. Without them giving you food, a place to live you would die. So just do some freelancing to get some money and then you can do what you want in the rest of the time.

You probably don't hate interacting with people that much. It's probably just that your interactions are out of control and on overload in the office. You'd probably be happier freelancing so your interactions would be far fewer and more structured.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com