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There is almost no chance that people who run small farms are evaluating on the same terms as you. They have found a sustaining lifestyle that lets them spend

There is almost no chance that people who run small farms are evaluating on the same terms as you. They have found a sustaining lifestyle that lets them spend time outside, work at home, teach their kids to work, eat local, work with their neighbors, have seasonal variation in their lives, transact with their neighbors, have fun toys (seriously, if you've never driven a tractor...), have privacy, and on and on. It's a totally different path than a salaried job, and not because they couldn't how to code for big tech or work for a bank. It's a dedicated version of the FIRE idea that so many people with highly paid jobs aspire to.

wollsmoth 4y ago
yeah it's a living. I'm sure there's some free time in the winter but you aren't exactly going to retire early.
- QuarterReptile 4y ago
  I don't think you took away quite what I meant. The farming becomes a passion project or slow lifestyle or healthy living, or some other idea of all the stuff FIRE types are finally going to do after they reach their number. But instead of starting with a theoretically infinite runway, they launch right into the lives they want to live. The small farmers are willing to take the bet on themselves in exchange for not delaying the dream for 10+ years. Also, I'm really skeptical about the retire part of FIRE. It's less retire and more 'stop being the mythical human money optimizer machine of economics, which I show an uncommon knack for approximating.'
cwkoss 4y ago
As society continues approaching cyberpunk dystopia, I wouldn't be surprised if office workers would start paying to stay and work on farms to reconnect with land/nature. Pick-yourself farms are big here - feels like the first step in that direction.
- guerrilla 4y ago
  > I wouldn't be surprised if office workers would start paying to stay and work on farms to reconnect with land/nature. This started long ago. Look it up. There's also WWOOF.

wollsmoth 4y ago

yeah it's a living. I'm sure there's some free time in the winter but you aren't exactly going to retire early.

QuarterReptile 4y ago
I don't think you took away quite what I meant. The farming becomes a passion project or slow lifestyle or healthy living, or some other idea of all the stuff FIRE types are finally going to do after they reach their number. But instead of starting with a theoretically infinite runway, they launch right into the lives they want to live. The small farmers are willing to take the bet on themselves in exchange for not delaying the dream for 10+ years. Also, I'm really skeptical about the retire part of FIRE. It's less retire and more 'stop being the mythical human money optimizer machine of economics, which I show an uncommon knack for approximating.'

cwkoss 4y ago

As society continues approaching cyberpunk dystopia, I wouldn't be surprised if office workers would start paying to stay and work on farms to reconnect with land/nature. Pick-yourself farms are big here - feels like the first step in that direction.

guerrilla 4y ago
> I wouldn't be surprised if office workers would start paying to stay and work on farms to reconnect with land/nature. This started long ago. Look it up. There's also WWOOF.