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Comment by defterGoose | Hacker News Reader

Some friends of mine from college and I, while considering our impending matriculation into the housing and job market of LA, conceived of the idea of 'failure house'; a place where we could all live when we failed at life. We still talk about it ten years on, and it has evolved into the idea of 'failure commune'. One of these friends became a lawyer and bought a house in Orange County recently. Traitor.

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I just graduated college and am having similar thoughts (but think Bay Area instead of LA). It seems like a great idea but I know of few examples besides full-on communes. Do you know of any examples of living communities or living styles that fall somewhere between living on your own and living on a commune?

Look up online communities dedicated to Homesteading. There also seems to be a movement around "backyard chickens" (i.e. raising small amounts of livestock at an average suburban house).

So far I haven't come across any information on physical communities of homesteaders, although a local community seems like a necessity if you ever want to take a vacation again. Can't really leave crops on their own for very long without them dying, let alone livestock...

Check out co-ops. There was one near Uchicago, my friend lived there with 20 others, mostly not students. They had group dinners every night, cooked by housemates, and always had someone around to chat with. We used to hang there playing games and partying. The vibe was pretty hippie but if you dont mind that, I'd recommend it. The rent was equivalent to sharing a 3 or 4 bedroom but you got a lot more shared amenities and dinners to boot.

My old college roommates and I are purchasing a 4 acre lot. A few of us are ready to put down houses now. I feel like this kind of thing is becoming more common? I know we weren't the first people with this idea. Land and housing is so expensive that we can't all individually own homes, but if we pool money on land this becomes possible. And doesn't everyone want their friends to be their neighbors? We have to develop alternative strategies to make it through the future.

Let him know you're so happy that he bought the first house for the failure commune and tell him when you can move in.

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