I am drawn to the tech scene beacause or the intellectual exchanges, and I am worried farming communities might not be where I can thrive!
Other than that: Income. How did you adjust to a lower level income in the beginning?
I find I have much more interesting and intellectual conversations with people outside of tech.
No truer words have ever been written...
Out at the farm its real easy to meet people and make new friends. Your neighbors will go out of their way to come meet you, and are overwhelmingly friendly. If you are friendly, well spoken, honest, not inflammatory, cooperative; then you will do fine. People are helpful and there is an air of reciprocity. In town its more difficult, but that is the same anywhere.
> I am drawn to the tech scene beacause or the intellectual exchanges, and I am worried farming communities might not be where I can thrive!
I learn a tremendous amount from the locals. But i have an expanded sense of what is interesting. I dabble in just about everything. Yes the available intellectual stimulation has changed. People arent particularly tech savvy here. There are a fair number of science and medical folk. Intelligent people are distributed everywhere, but it would be up to you to find them and stoke their interest in technology.
I would say there is a market opportunity in starting up a coding bootcamp here. If i had more time and resources I would start one.
> Other than that: Income. How did you adjust to a lower level income in the beginning?
I have no debt for one. I have no dependents. And i reduced my standard of living temporarily, lived in a trailer on the land.
I was making $15 an hour for the year i was learning. Now, the business (first contract was in Jan 2022) is producing more than enough for me to live on. And i have passive income from the farm, for now, while i make the necessary improvements. it produces a ~2% dividend, which i re-invest.
I have definitely made a fair number of tradeoffs. But it is a vast improvement on how my life was going before. I was depressed. I think the whole city lifestyle induced depression in me, and led me to cope in unhealthy ways. I'm now in the best shape of my life, and im happy. And i'm slowly building a network of people i enjoy being around, something i didnt have nearly enough of living in the bay area. No support real structure. I have one here, already, 2 years in. On the other hand, its far more physical. But i wanted that after 13 years of sitting.