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I was born in an African village, literally in a mud hut. I spent the first 9 years of my life in a village. The town I grew up in wasn't far from the village s

I was born in an African village, literally in a mud hut. I spent the first 9 years of my life in a village. The town I grew up in wasn't far from the village so I spent holidays in the village too. I now work in IT and try keep up with the latest frameworks. That is I am not concerned with starving to death and I have health insurance. If I compare my upbringing with my daughter's, there is nothing to compare. We walked around barefoot, unsupervised, climbed trees, ate wild fruit, made spears from wood and once you were four you had to take your two year old sibling with you and look after them. There were no nannies. Here is the interesting thing, none of us ever had to see an occupational therapist to help us with our hand eye co-ordination. Falling out of a tree was enough incentive to figure it out on your own. I digress, the point I am trying to make is that I remember my childhood as a happy time. Full of activity and adventure. I would have been classified as poor because I we slept on the floor, shared blankets as kids. Kids ate from the same plate, grouped roughly by age group. No toys except ones we made ourselves. I am not advocating returning to the village. Running water and healthcare are good things. I often wonder about who is better off, me in town with access to water and health but with all manner of rates and taxes and social pressures? Edit: typos

cmdrfred 10y ago
Off topic but I view success as not where you are in life but how far you've come. You've got to have a pretty high score of life's leaderboard.
- mmsimanga 10y ago
  You make a very interesting point. I would say I am able to adapt to my surroundings pretty well. At work it is all about databases and SQL. When I am back in my home country, conversations are about the rain. Rain determines how crops fare and how much food is available for the livestock. Trying to describe what I do is a none starter. The interesting thing is how easy it is to adapt and to also get caught up in the environment you are in. Suddenly the next great framework is the thing that occupies your mind the most. At that moment I am just like any other person in IT. I go home once a year because it keeps me grounded. Makes me realise I have come far but life is a bit slower there and people have genuine smiles but own less.
  - criddell 10y ago
    > people have genuine smiles but own less That's a great observation. I think it's hard to argue that someone happy in their life is not successful just because they haven't advanced economically.
    - gerpsh 10y ago
      This Onion article really nails this point: http://www.theonion.com/article/unambitious-loser-with-happy-fulfilling-life-still-33233 http://www.theonion.com/article/unambitious-loser-with-happy...
      - criddell 10y ago
        > Husmer is unlikely to change at this point, and may in fact remain a good-natured and highly fulfilled layabout for the rest of his life. Great link. The Onion rarely disappoints.
gmarx 10y ago
Funny (ironic?) thing is that each incremental advance in civilization may be a good thing in isolation and, given the choice between adding benefit X to their existing situation or not, most people would choose adding benefit X without hesitation. And yet, somehow the sum of hundreds of such benefits (secure food, healthcare, fire departments, internet) doesn't lead to a significant increase in average happiness. In fact it may be that we in the west are less happy than people living in stone age societies.
- jimmaswell 10y ago
  The lack of increase in happiness sounds like simply hedonic adaptation.
- jwhitlark 10y ago
  When humans come into conflict, and they always do, it's not happiness that decides the winner, it's power. The societies that exist today are the ones that survived, not the ones that are best for their constituents.
  - mmsimanga 10y ago
    Agreed. Finding valuable minerals in a village is one sure way of ending the peaceful existence. Everything changes!
- mmsimanga 10y ago
  I think about this a lot. One of my own theories is that we always want more. A columnist here, South Africa wrote about how when he was in high school he just wanted enough money to take his date to a movie and have enough money to buy popcorn. In college, he wanted enough money to buy a crate of beer, as a young employee he wanted enough to buy the cool car. Get the drift, somehow we always want more. People in the village are not immune from wanting more but the pace is slower. They are more patient. They exercise, not by going to gym but walking 10km to say hello to a neighbor then walking back. Food is organic, all cows eat grass and roam free. Little of the food is highly processed. They also manually process their food. The thought of spending half a day pounding millet for supper has me getting so impatient and thinking surely there is a better way. They have accepted. Sorry I went on a bit of a rant, but this is topic close to my heart.
redsummer 10y ago
Benjamin Franklin on the appeal of the traditional Native American life: "When an Indian Child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our Customs, yet if he goes to see his relations and make one Indian Ramble with them, there is no perswading him ever to return, and that this is not natural [to them] merely as Indians, but as men, is plain from this, that when white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and lived a while among them, tho' ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a Short time they become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the first good Opportunity of escaping again into the Woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them"
- kbenson 10y ago
  Happiness is more closely linked to status (relative position and wealth) than absolute benefits[1][2]. In that respect, I imagine someone taken from the environment they understand and are accustomed to and put into a foreign one where they are likely a curiosity, and at best an outsider, would result in them longing for what they understood. For the same reason, I imagine the poor in Benjamin Franklin's time might find a Native American lifestyle (if accepted by the group) to have some draw if exposed to it. I would by the same measure expect the middle and upper classes to find it less appealing. 1: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3315638/Relative-wealth-makes-you-happier.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3315638... 2: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&cites=3768622009795077702 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&cites=37...
callinyouin 10y ago
Very interesting story and perspective, thanks for sharing. If you ever wrote a book about your life, or even a detailed blog post (didn't see anything on your blog about your personal life), I'm sure people would love to read it. :)
- mmsimanga 10y ago
  Thank you for your comment. Never thought it was worthwhile to write about it. Might just do that.
jotux 10y ago
Your story is really interesting. Can you talk about how you transitioned from your original village to where you are now? Do you still have connections back to where you were born? How does it affect the way you raise your daughter?
- mmsimanga 10y ago
  My parents were both teachers. When I was born, they were stationed in my dad's home village. We just lived with the whole family. It was village of cousins. We moved to town which is 60km (40miles) away when my dad got a job working in a mine. From then I went to school in town and only spent holidays in the village. To this day we still own our own cows and our home still stands. To answer your questions, yes more than half my relatives are still in the same village. We talking a village of 60 odd people. I organise a gathering every other Christmas, we slaughter a cow (apologies to the sensitive) and talk about the good old days. Times have changed even in the village. Everyone has a cellphone even in the village :-).
com2kid 10y ago
> Here is the interesting thing, none of us ever had to see an occupational therapist to help us with our hand eye co-ordination. Falling out of a tree was enough incentive to figure it out on your own. Survivorship bias. I have poor eyesight, no amount of practice would ever allow me to throw a spear and hit a wild animal. Heck with lots of occupational therapy as a kid, I can kinda-sorta catch a ball. On a good day. I'll say that falling out of trees was a lot easier (even fun!) as a kid though. I do worry that the current generation doesn't have much unstructured play time. > We walked around barefoot, unsupervised, climbed trees, ate wild fruit, made spears from wood and once you were four you had to take your two year old sibling with you and look after them. Growing up working class in 80s and early 90s suburbia was awfully similar. Except we had to wear shoes when it got too hot, concrete is friendly to cars, not feet. :( But yeah, we ran around all summer day long without parents getting involved. The littler kids were looked after (dragged home for diaper changes though!), we road bikes all around, picked berries from the woods, got hatchets and chopped down small trees to make clearings in the woods. Now days? I am not quite sure what childhood is like for the current generation. I know that I've see less and less groups of kids running around every year, and I haven't really seen any in the last few years, but maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.
- zeroer 10y ago
  > I have poor eyesight, no amount of practice would ever allow me to throw a spear and hit a wild animal. What, specifically, is your eyesight problem? There's some growing suggestive evidence that our eyes need time outside in bright sunlight to develop properly. Depending on your particular sight problem, it may very well be the case that a failure to be outside attempting to throw a spear and hit a wild animal as a child is the cause of your problem. https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/time-outdoors-reduces-nearsightedness https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/time-outdoors...
  - com2kid 10y ago
    > What, specifically, is your eyesight problem? I'm missing an optic nerve. Sunlight isn't going to fix that. :)
acchow 10y ago
Incredible. Can you talk about how you learned programming and the obstacles you hit along the way? (financially, health, or actual educational obstacles). How did you get a programming job? Also, as others have noted, there is survivorship bias in your experience. If you or one of your siblings were born with a disability or became disabled in some way from a sickness, the experience would probably be quite bad.
- mmsimanga 10y ago
  I had replied to an earlier thread. In short, moved to town, went to school in town. Touched first PC in University at the age of 21. Alot of the adaptation happened as a kid. I went to school not knowing a word of English. I don't even know how I learnt the language. Kids adapt. They are less self conscious. So I guess every new environment was new for as long as it took to adapt.
vijayr 10y ago
Everything around us seems to be optimized for efficiency, speed and profits. Nothing is optimized for happiness anymore, unless that happiness is directly tied to someone's profits. And we are all judged on weird metrics - ("40 and still writing code, not in management?" "don't want to have kids?", "don't want to own a house?" etc all followed by "what is wrong with you?"). And everything seems complicated too - I just read somewhere that credit card agreements are like dozens of pages today, vs a couple of pages before. Like you, I also wonder the same - fancy electronics, cars, running water etc are all great, but how much of it truly contribute to one's laughter, happiness, health etc?

cmdrfred 10y ago

Off topic but I view success as not where you are in life but how far you've come. You've got to have a pretty high score of life's leaderboard.

mmsimanga 10y ago
You make a very interesting point. I would say I am able to adapt to my surroundings pretty well. At work it is all about databases and SQL. When I am back in my home country, conversations are about the rain. Rain determines how crops fare and how much food is available for the livestock. Trying to describe what I do is a none starter. The interesting thing is how easy it is to adapt and to also get caught up in the environment you are in. Suddenly the next great framework is the thing that occupies your mind the most. At that moment I am just like any other person in IT. I go home once a year because it keeps me grounded. Makes me realise I have come far but life is a bit slower there and people have genuine smiles but own less.
- criddell 10y ago
  > people have genuine smiles but own less That's a great observation. I think it's hard to argue that someone happy in their life is not successful just because they haven't advanced economically.
  - gerpsh 10y ago
    This Onion article really nails this point: http://www.theonion.com/article/unambitious-loser-with-happy-fulfilling-life-still-33233 http://www.theonion.com/article/unambitious-loser-with-happy...
    - criddell 10y ago
      > Husmer is unlikely to change at this point, and may in fact remain a good-natured and highly fulfilled layabout for the rest of his life. Great link. The Onion rarely disappoints.

gmarx 10y ago

Funny (ironic?) thing is that each incremental advance in civilization may be a good thing in isolation and, given the choice between adding benefit X to their existing situation or not, most people would choose adding benefit X without hesitation. And yet, somehow the sum of hundreds of such benefits (secure food, healthcare, fire departments, internet) doesn't lead to a significant increase in average happiness. In fact it may be that we in the west are less happy than people living in stone age societies.

jimmaswell 10y ago
The lack of increase in happiness sounds like simply hedonic adaptation.
jwhitlark 10y ago
When humans come into conflict, and they always do, it's not happiness that decides the winner, it's power. The societies that exist today are the ones that survived, not the ones that are best for their constituents.
- mmsimanga 10y ago
  Agreed. Finding valuable minerals in a village is one sure way of ending the peaceful existence. Everything changes!
mmsimanga 10y ago
I think about this a lot. One of my own theories is that we always want more. A columnist here, South Africa wrote about how when he was in high school he just wanted enough money to take his date to a movie and have enough money to buy popcorn. In college, he wanted enough money to buy a crate of beer, as a young employee he wanted enough to buy the cool car. Get the drift, somehow we always want more. People in the village are not immune from wanting more but the pace is slower. They are more patient. They exercise, not by going to gym but walking 10km to say hello to a neighbor then walking back. Food is organic, all cows eat grass and roam free. Little of the food is highly processed. They also manually process their food. The thought of spending half a day pounding millet for supper has me getting so impatient and thinking surely there is a better way. They have accepted. Sorry I went on a bit of a rant, but this is topic close to my heart.

redsummer 10y ago

Benjamin Franklin on the appeal of the traditional Native American life: "When an Indian Child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our Customs, yet if he goes to see his relations and make one Indian Ramble with them, there is no perswading him ever to return, and that this is not natural [to them] merely as Indians, but as men, is plain from this, that when white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and lived a while among them, tho' ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a Short time they become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the first good Opportunity of escaping again into the Woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them"

kbenson 10y ago
Happiness is more closely linked to status (relative position and wealth) than absolute benefits[1][2]. In that respect, I imagine someone taken from the environment they understand and are accustomed to and put into a foreign one where they are likely a curiosity, and at best an outsider, would result in them longing for what they understood. For the same reason, I imagine the poor in Benjamin Franklin's time might find a Native American lifestyle (if accepted by the group) to have some draw if exposed to it. I would by the same measure expect the middle and upper classes to find it less appealing. 1: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3315638/Relative-wealth-makes-you-happier.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3315638... 2: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&cites=3768622009795077702 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?um=1&ie=UTF-8&lr&cites=37...

callinyouin 10y ago

Very interesting story and perspective, thanks for sharing. If you ever wrote a book about your life, or even a detailed blog post (didn't see anything on your blog about your personal life), I'm sure people would love to read it. :)

mmsimanga 10y ago
Thank you for your comment. Never thought it was worthwhile to write about it. Might just do that.

jotux 10y ago

Your story is really interesting. Can you talk about how you transitioned from your original village to where you are now? Do you still have connections back to where you were born? How does it affect the way you raise your daughter?

mmsimanga 10y ago
My parents were both teachers. When I was born, they were stationed in my dad's home village. We just lived with the whole family. It was village of cousins. We moved to town which is 60km (40miles) away when my dad got a job working in a mine. From then I went to school in town and only spent holidays in the village. To this day we still own our own cows and our home still stands. To answer your questions, yes more than half my relatives are still in the same village. We talking a village of 60 odd people. I organise a gathering every other Christmas, we slaughter a cow (apologies to the sensitive) and talk about the good old days. Times have changed even in the village. Everyone has a cellphone even in the village :-).

com2kid 10y ago

> Here is the interesting thing, none of us ever had to see an occupational therapist to help us with our hand eye co-ordination. Falling out of a tree was enough incentive to figure it out on your own. Survivorship bias. I have poor eyesight, no amount of practice would ever allow me to throw a spear and hit a wild animal. Heck with lots of occupational therapy as a kid, I can kinda-sorta catch a ball. On a good day. I'll say that falling out of trees was a lot easier (even fun!) as a kid though. I do worry that the current generation doesn't have much unstructured play time. > We walked around barefoot, unsupervised, climbed trees, ate wild fruit, made spears from wood and once you were four you had to take your two year old sibling with you and look after them. Growing up working class in 80s and early 90s suburbia was awfully similar. Except we had to wear shoes when it got too hot, concrete is friendly to cars, not feet. :( But yeah, we ran around all summer day long without parents getting involved. The littler kids were looked after (dragged home for diaper changes though!), we road bikes all around, picked berries from the woods, got hatchets and chopped down small trees to make clearings in the woods. Now days? I am not quite sure what childhood is like for the current generation. I know that I've see less and less groups of kids running around every year, and I haven't really seen any in the last few years, but maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.

zeroer 10y ago
> I have poor eyesight, no amount of practice would ever allow me to throw a spear and hit a wild animal. What, specifically, is your eyesight problem? There's some growing suggestive evidence that our eyes need time outside in bright sunlight to develop properly. Depending on your particular sight problem, it may very well be the case that a failure to be outside attempting to throw a spear and hit a wild animal as a child is the cause of your problem. https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/time-outdoors-reduces-nearsightedness https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/time-outdoors...
- com2kid 10y ago
  > What, specifically, is your eyesight problem? I'm missing an optic nerve. Sunlight isn't going to fix that. :)

acchow 10y ago

Incredible. Can you talk about how you learned programming and the obstacles you hit along the way? (financially, health, or actual educational obstacles). How did you get a programming job? Also, as others have noted, there is survivorship bias in your experience. If you or one of your siblings were born with a disability or became disabled in some way from a sickness, the experience would probably be quite bad.

mmsimanga 10y ago
I had replied to an earlier thread. In short, moved to town, went to school in town. Touched first PC in University at the age of 21. Alot of the adaptation happened as a kid. I went to school not knowing a word of English. I don't even know how I learnt the language. Kids adapt. They are less self conscious. So I guess every new environment was new for as long as it took to adapt.

vijayr 10y ago

Everything around us seems to be optimized for efficiency, speed and profits. Nothing is optimized for happiness anymore, unless that happiness is directly tied to someone's profits. And we are all judged on weird metrics - ("40 and still writing code, not in management?" "don't want to have kids?", "don't want to own a house?" etc all followed by "what is wrong with you?"). And everything seems complicated too - I just read somewhere that credit card agreements are like dozens of pages today, vs a couple of pages before. Like you, I also wonder the same - fancy electronics, cars, running water etc are all great, but how much of it truly contribute to one's laughter, happiness, health etc?