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For me, it's a conflation of goals: 1. I'm a formerly reckless guy in my mid-30's, and I've wanted to try it for about a decade or so, so it seems like a chall

For me, it's a conflation of goals: 1. I'm a formerly reckless guy in my mid-30's, and I've wanted to try it for about a decade or so, so it seems like a challenging adventure. 2. My hobbies and interests seem to constantly preoccupy with survival and understanding how the world works. I did a stint WWOOFing, and found it extremely enriching. 3. Suburbia and urban living really rub me the wrong way. I like to fix and work with things more than "trust experts". I was very fortunate to marry someone who thinks the same way. 4. In a political sense (i.e., "people power"), I anticipate that if this goes well I can build a small town someday. My wife jokes it as a "tech commune", but I'm still hammering out details on what it'd take. I guess it's my own "mid-life crisis", where I realize that I'm significantly better at understanding and fixing everything than winning friends and influencing people. Edit: I keep forgetting that formatting thing where 2 line breaks is a paragraph break on HN.

LinuxBender 4y ago
I was very fortunate to marry someone who thinks the same way. That is incredible. I mean, seriously that is probably the best thing going for you. I anticipate that if this goes well I can build a small town someday. Well that is quite a large project. That's a bit bigger than homesteading. There are videos on Youtube of people building out small ISP's and showing all the challenges they had. I wish you luck on your project. I can envision the obstacles you will face but it sounds like you are the right person to do it and being on HN I can only assume you will research every step of the way to avoid the money pits and mazes of regulations. I hope you make a video log of everything but wait until it is done to publish it to avoid the Youtube griefers and nay-sayers.
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yourapostasy 4y ago
> ...build a small town someday... Check out Alan, this dude who tried to build his own pico-version of such a vision [1]. He accumulated an insanely-long list of maker skills. Trying to homestead by yourself is the fastest way to learn and respect our modern world's tech tree's fractal complexity. You quickly learn that you have to build a community and trust experts unless you want to yak shave all day long on endless branches of the tech tree, or you're willing to drop a few centuries down the tech tree. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwievpEnXrE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwievpEnXrE
EdwardDiego 4y ago
> My hobbies and interests seem to constantly preoccupy with survival and understanding how the world works May I suggest mountaineering, hunting, hiking, or motorcycling instead? They all involve significant amounts of insight and understanding to not die. I've enjoyed them all. I've also tried living off the grid as much as possible, and, well, it's not practical to be a purist about, not if you want to maintain modern living standards. I mean, you could decide to live like you're settling Nebraska in 1862, but are you willing to put your loved ones in a situation where medical care isn't available? Anyway, it's very hard work, subsistence farming is literally a full-time job, and it involves a _lot_ of isolation. Some people can go into the bush alone for six months and come out fine, some people lose their shit after a weekend with no company other than themselves. I'm in the latter group (although to be fair, it takes me a week to reach the twitchy stage), and I have no shame in admitting it. We've evolved to be social animals. Lastly, a reminder that the ol' philosophical father of modern homesteading thought, Henry David Thoreau, wrote Walden while living in a hut 1.5 miles from his family home in Concord.

LinuxBender 4y ago

I was very fortunate to marry someone who thinks the same way. That is incredible. I mean, seriously that is probably the best thing going for you. I anticipate that if this goes well I can build a small town someday. Well that is quite a large project. That's a bit bigger than homesteading. There are videos on Youtube of people building out small ISP's and showing all the challenges they had. I wish you luck on your project. I can envision the obstacles you will face but it sounds like you are the right person to do it and being on HN I can only assume you will research every step of the way to avoid the money pits and mazes of regulations. I hope you make a video log of everything but wait until it is done to publish it to avoid the Youtube griefers and nay-sayers.

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yourapostasy 4y ago

> ...build a small town someday... Check out Alan, this dude who tried to build his own pico-version of such a vision [1]. He accumulated an insanely-long list of maker skills. Trying to homestead by yourself is the fastest way to learn and respect our modern world's tech tree's fractal complexity. You quickly learn that you have to build a community and trust experts unless you want to yak shave all day long on endless branches of the tech tree, or you're willing to drop a few centuries down the tech tree. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwievpEnXrE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwievpEnXrE

EdwardDiego 4y ago

> My hobbies and interests seem to constantly preoccupy with survival and understanding how the world works May I suggest mountaineering, hunting, hiking, or motorcycling instead? They all involve significant amounts of insight and understanding to not die. I've enjoyed them all. I've also tried living off the grid as much as possible, and, well, it's not practical to be a purist about, not if you want to maintain modern living standards. I mean, you could decide to live like you're settling Nebraska in 1862, but are you willing to put your loved ones in a situation where medical care isn't available? Anyway, it's very hard work, subsistence farming is literally a full-time job, and it involves a _lot_ of isolation. Some people can go into the bush alone for six months and come out fine, some people lose their shit after a weekend with no company other than themselves. I'm in the latter group (although to be fair, it takes me a week to reach the twitchy stage), and I have no shame in admitting it. We've evolved to be social animals. Lastly, a reminder that the ol' philosophical father of modern homesteading thought, Henry David Thoreau, wrote Walden while living in a hut 1.5 miles from his family home in Concord.