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My wife and I are a year or two away from a cottage endeavor. I'm not sure why I'm wired the way that I am, but hermitage has a romantic appeal. Distractions an

My wife and I are a year or two away from a cottage endeavor. I'm not sure why I'm wired the way that I am, but hermitage has a romantic appeal. Distractions and potential interruptions make me anxious. My disconnect with nature and the food that I eat does as well. It's an odd juxtaposition -- I love technology. I just dislike what comes with it.

dasmoth 12y ago
I'm not sure it's a particularly rare combination. There's little about technology that demands urbanism, and in the 80s and 90s there seemed to be a fairly clear picture (exemplified by the concept of telecommuting) of technology as a way to escape from urbanism, or at least to negate many of its historical advantages. There does seem to have been a bit of a reaction to that. Partly, it might be down to the difficulty of providing fast networks in remote places. But there does seem to be a resurgence of urbanism at the moment. I hope your plans go well!
jason_slack 12y ago
Interesting, my wife and I are planning this now. I posted a comment about it.
bsdshepherd 12y ago
It would be beneficial to sit for an afternoon or two with someone who's done it and is willing to talk about it. Most of the recent technology is pretty weak compared to 100 years ago. This is what my cordless drill looks like: imgur.com/ZWCcuyr.jpg. As I mentioned elsewhere here, I did _everything_ wrong when I moved rural. Much of ESR's Art of Unix Programming is a blueprint for self sufficient living if you squint a bit. Begin collecting pre-WWII farm tools ASAP. Sell most everything you currently own before you move - it's worse than useless. Understand something - at some point you will become angry about how you used to live. It's okay. At some point you won't be able to visit a city without feeling a deep pity for the people living there. That's okay too. You may reach the point where you know you can't return to city living, because the people are crazy. They will feel the same way about you by that time. By then, there's no going back. You will have learned the difference between civilization and domestication. Good luck.

dasmoth 12y ago

I'm not sure it's a particularly rare combination. There's little about technology that demands urbanism, and in the 80s and 90s there seemed to be a fairly clear picture (exemplified by the concept of telecommuting) of technology as a way to escape from urbanism, or at least to negate many of its historical advantages. There does seem to have been a bit of a reaction to that. Partly, it might be down to the difficulty of providing fast networks in remote places. But there does seem to be a resurgence of urbanism at the moment. I hope your plans go well!

jason_slack 12y ago

Interesting, my wife and I are planning this now. I posted a comment about it.

bsdshepherd 12y ago

It would be beneficial to sit for an afternoon or two with someone who's done it and is willing to talk about it. Most of the recent technology is pretty weak compared to 100 years ago. This is what my cordless drill looks like: imgur.com/ZWCcuyr.jpg. As I mentioned elsewhere here, I did _everything_ wrong when I moved rural. Much of ESR's Art of Unix Programming is a blueprint for self sufficient living if you squint a bit. Begin collecting pre-WWII farm tools ASAP. Sell most everything you currently own before you move - it's worse than useless. Understand something - at some point you will become angry about how you used to live. It's okay. At some point you won't be able to visit a city without feeling a deep pity for the people living there. That's okay too. You may reach the point where you know you can't return to city living, because the people are crazy. They will feel the same way about you by that time. By then, there's no going back. You will have learned the difference between civilization and domestication. Good luck.