Comment by munificent | Hacker News Reader

Comment by munificent | Hacker News Reader

I think this impulse is actually pretty simple and doesn't need to resort to high level cultural politics to understand it (though I agree that culture comes into play too). I think it's mostly two things:

1. We crave tactile skillful experiences

We have thousands of years of evolution that encourage us to want to use our bodies skillfully. We're a tool-using species and humans that didn't derive some intrinsic satisfaction from manipulating the physical world deftly probably didn't survive long enough to make babies.

It just straight up feels good to watch ones own hands turn a piece of wood into a utensil, a hank of yarn into a wearable garment, or a patch of dirt into edible vegetables.

2. We want to feel resourceful and secure

We have emotions like anxiety and worry to get us to prepare for the future. Of course, we can't fully predict the future, so part of that is a general feeling of resourcefulness. "I don't know what's coming, but I know I can handle it when it does."

Working in tech is in many ways the opposite of that. We're like hothouse flowers or thoroughbred racehorses. We are fantastically good at this one specific thing that happens to be highly valued right now. But there's an underlying anxiety that if the world stops needing more software... what's our plan B?

You don't have to go full apocalyptic prepper mentality to have a gnawing worry in the back of your head that if this whole software thing doesn't work out, what else am I good for?

A craving for manual skills that transcend trends, time, and specific corporate employment is a natural hedge against that frightening level of specialization.

I think this is it. And I suspect most of these folks don't honestly believe they want to actually run acres and acres of farmland as a commercial enterprise.

But speaking as someone who has a small herd of sheep, a few pigs every year and processes his own 50~ meat birds on the property every year. I know how much it sucks to watch a lamb and mother die in childbirth. I know the itch of thousands of hay cuts after clearing a field of bales and putting them up.

And I also have a 2g fiber line to my house and work a tech job remotely for my primary income. My desire to do the land things is not based on mythology. It's because the food tastes better when I helped raise it. It's a slight independence from some of the modern just-in-time food conveniences. It also means I have to work with my neighbors, cause who else is gonna help you cull a dying sheep in a pouring rain and put it down and get it in the compost?

I don't do these things because they're easy. I do them because I feel a little more alive once it's over and I've shared a difficult moment, or a delicious meal with a friend or my children.

Now that you mention it, I have always enjoyed that general feeling of resourcefulness. I've talked about this with other people, but given my fairly eclectic background I usually feel like I can handle a pretty wide variety of problems. It's a very centering feeling, so it would make sense as to why other people worry about being overinvested in just one skill.

Honestly, after being a gentleman farmer for 15 years or so now, I've come to realize that farmers were the original hackers. In this sense, there's almost a coming-home aspect to software developers wanting to do farm work.

I've never been so proud as when I figured out how to rig up the water nipple in a way that the pigs wouldn't rip it off the wall for the umpteenth time. And my solution probably wouldn't work for most other farmers. It's a design of circumstance and an appreciation of material and the brutal-ness of animals. Livestock are 10x worse on your designs than your average web site user.

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