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I grew up on a farm. Not surprised to see this decision in the slightest. Farming is tough -- physically, financially, and in the end emotionally. But it is sti

I grew up on a farm. Not surprised to see this decision in the slightest. Farming is tough -- physically, financially, and in the end emotionally. But it is still a very rewarding life. I can remember sitting on my grandfather's lap, riding on his John Deere two-cylinder (it was called a Johnny Popper.) Pre-school? I went to pre-farming. I was probably 3 years old the first time I rode a tractor. By the time I was 8, I was driving that popper while two of my grandfather's farm hands tossed hay bales onto a flatbed trailer. We drove back to the barn, and I scampered up to the second floor and waited as those guys tossed those hay bales up through a huge opening. I had to stack the hay bales, and had to run my ass off to keep up. Then, we'd do it all over again until the barn was full. I was exhausted every day, but my grandfather allowed me to drink my first beer with those guys when we were finished. It sounds awful, but it was an amazing experience. I'm no longer out in the field. For me now, the feeling of working on something with my hands is cathartic. Some of my best days for relaxing involve doing simple yardwork around our house. The farm life works for some people, but not for others. What is great is that no one need debate whether that choice is right -- it only matters to yourself. Good for this guy, I think he made a great choice for himself.

baldfat 11y ago
I made friends with two brothers one was a farmer (Wheat most with some mustard and rape seed). For three years my two week vacation was farming during the morning and than water skiing for the evening at their farm. Went to bed dead tired and than continue to work on the farm. I had a desk job and I enjoyed every second of the farm work. I certainly would not want to be a farmer but man it was a ton of fun to do temporarily.
jorgeleo 11y ago
"The farm life works for some people" I agree. I couldn't do farm, I have bad allergies to pollen, dust, and too much time under the sun and I become red as a lobster, and it is painful But programming is what I love to do. So I will say "The programmer life works for some people" I wouldn't call the original article "The death of a programmer", I would call it "The born of a farmer". He figure out were he feels happier, and that is good thing which sometimes means leaving behind what is hip for the masses, but that is not a failure, that is centering
- Fuxy 11y ago
  I somewhat in the middle too much programming it mentally exhausting too much farming is physically exhausting but if i don't do some hard physical work from time to time i cannot enjoy programming.
- wslh 11y ago
  As a child, I interacted with the first computer, a TI-99/4A, on a farm. So, for me the best programming inspiration is mixing nature with computers.
- crimsonalucard 11y ago
  As much as we "say" we love programming and farming if ever we became so filthy rich that we could pay other people to do these things for us... we would. I've never heard of a tech billionaire profess his love of programming so much that he's diving right back into the trenches. We're all human, we may love programming and farming, but let's be real, programming and farming are still work and we're all working toward retirement: a state where we no longer need to work.
  - jalcazar 11y ago
    No. Matthew Dillon doesn't need to work but keeps working on DragonFlyBSD. Also it is possible to live and work as in retirement http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/fisherman.html http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/fisherman.html
    - crimsonalucard 11y ago
      I don't think their is any quantifiable data to prove what either of us say... but I think what I say applies to most programmers, not all.
    - tete 11y ago
      Addendum to that. The story in the link actually seems to be "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral", by Heinrich Böll. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekdote_zur_Senkung_der_Arbeitsmoral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekdote_zur_Senkung_der_Arbei... An English translation as PDF: https://www.uea.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.33246!np_vol_5_article_8_by_hansjorg_bittner.pdf https://www.uea.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.33246!np_vol_5_article_8...
kross 11y ago
I also spent a good amount of time on the farm. I sit here, a successful tech entrepreneur that now never has to work again after an exit. I achieved my life goals (at least the ones I set in my twenties). I took time off to break the need to work, then once again I'm on a new adventure starting a new tech company. I really enjoy my daily tech challenges, but how many lifetime memories have I made in my tech career? I'm not so sure, but it doesn't compare to my childhood and college years. This article is a good reminder that we need to connect with life.
- hotterpop 11y ago
  I've thought about this a lot. I'm not a tech billionaire or anything, but I make pretty decent money for being a year out of college. My parents always had a large garden when I was growing up, roughly a half acre, and we kept an assortment of birds and other production animals. I don't think I could ever commit myself to being a full time farmer- not being able to take a break would kill me. That said, there's a lot you can do when you work from home and have a little land. You can cram an incredible amount of growth into a half acre plot, or even a quarter acre- there are a lot of microgardeners in Seattle that work full time jobs and make gardening their passion. Myself, I'd like to have a couple acres to work with, and try to eliminate as much of the grocery store from my diet as I can. A life without fresh vegetables isn't a life to me, and I can't imagine raising my children without the company of animals.
waffle_ss 11y ago
I also grew up on a farm - a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin to be precise, which my father and younger brother still operate. Farming can be awesome. The hard physical work and exercise are satisfying, and you'll often encounter problems that need to be solved quickly and ingeniously (e.g. some implement breaks and you need to come up with a quick fix while the sun's still up). You can really build a camaraderie with your family members / coworkers after slogging through some really physically challenging jobs or solving mentally challenging problems together. The downsides are that the work never ends and you can never take a vacation. The cows always need to be milked (on a very annoying schedule I might add) and fieldwork needs to be done quickly when the weather is right (e.g. "make hay while the sun shines"). And it's really hard to find good hired workers to help out, because nowadays no one wants to do strenuous physical labor for relatively low pay. So on my dad/brother's farm, if one of them gets sick or hurt (another not uncommon danger), it's a big strain for them because they only have a couple high school-aged randos working part-time to help fill in the gaps. For me the big thing that made me want to get away from the farm was the lack of free time to get lost in your own thoughts. All the menial labor, maybe excluding driving tractor, doesn't give your mind a lot of time to wander. Which, after we got our family computer when I was 10, I often found it wanting to do...
- Symbiote 11y ago
  > The downsides are that the work never ends and you can never take a vacation Agriculture workers in Britain are entitled to paid holiday, sick pay, etc. Does anyone know how this works in practise in the UK, or any other Western/Northern European country? (Is their leave fixed at the employer's convenience, are temps employed in the worker's place, or what?) [1] https://www.gov.uk/agricultural-workers-rights https://www.gov.uk/agricultural-workers-rights
  - rsync 11y ago
    You're comparing apples to oranges. The underlying assumption for an agriculture worker in the UK, who is entitled to these protections, is that he is an employee ... not an owner. Contrast this to your parent comment which was very likely a family owned farm at wich they were self-employed. They didn't have worker protections as there was nobody from whom to be protected. Also, it should be noted that your parent comment was speaking of a dairy farm which are notorious for being "prison sentences" - you really can't ever take a vacation if you own your own dairy farm. It's the worst case scenario that he is skething out.
jradd 11y ago
I have the [un]fortunate opportunity to know exactly how hard baling hay really is. I am not always certain the vitality and character gained is necessarily worth the emotional drain. However I am sure there are mainy farms/ranches that get by without the _nepotent_ servitude that comes with it. :)
xwintermutex 11y ago
Trivia: a Johnny Popper is a John Deere model M. I am currently in the process of restoring one. It is called a popper because of its distinct sound, caused by the non-180 degree angle between the two cylinders on the camshaft. I dream about every day to become a farmer.
- jroseattle 11y ago
  Excellent. Those tractors were rockstars, and ran for years and years. I can still recall that popping sound in my head, many years later. Very distinctive.

baldfat 11y ago

I made friends with two brothers one was a farmer (Wheat most with some mustard and rape seed). For three years my two week vacation was farming during the morning and than water skiing for the evening at their farm. Went to bed dead tired and than continue to work on the farm. I had a desk job and I enjoyed every second of the farm work. I certainly would not want to be a farmer but man it was a ton of fun to do temporarily.

jorgeleo 11y ago

"The farm life works for some people" I agree. I couldn't do farm, I have bad allergies to pollen, dust, and too much time under the sun and I become red as a lobster, and it is painful But programming is what I love to do. So I will say "The programmer life works for some people" I wouldn't call the original article "The death of a programmer", I would call it "The born of a farmer". He figure out were he feels happier, and that is good thing which sometimes means leaving behind what is hip for the masses, but that is not a failure, that is centering

Fuxy 11y ago
I somewhat in the middle too much programming it mentally exhausting too much farming is physically exhausting but if i don't do some hard physical work from time to time i cannot enjoy programming.
wslh 11y ago
As a child, I interacted with the first computer, a TI-99/4A, on a farm. So, for me the best programming inspiration is mixing nature with computers.
crimsonalucard 11y ago
As much as we "say" we love programming and farming if ever we became so filthy rich that we could pay other people to do these things for us... we would. I've never heard of a tech billionaire profess his love of programming so much that he's diving right back into the trenches. We're all human, we may love programming and farming, but let's be real, programming and farming are still work and we're all working toward retirement: a state where we no longer need to work.
- jalcazar 11y ago
  No. Matthew Dillon doesn't need to work but keeps working on DragonFlyBSD. Also it is possible to live and work as in retirement http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/fisherman.html http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/fisherman.html
  - crimsonalucard 11y ago
    I don't think their is any quantifiable data to prove what either of us say... but I think what I say applies to most programmers, not all.
  - tete 11y ago
    Addendum to that. The story in the link actually seems to be "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral", by Heinrich Böll. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekdote_zur_Senkung_der_Arbeitsmoral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekdote_zur_Senkung_der_Arbei... An English translation as PDF: https://www.uea.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.33246!np_vol_5_article_8_by_hansjorg_bittner.pdf https://www.uea.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.33246!np_vol_5_article_8...

kross 11y ago

I also spent a good amount of time on the farm. I sit here, a successful tech entrepreneur that now never has to work again after an exit. I achieved my life goals (at least the ones I set in my twenties). I took time off to break the need to work, then once again I'm on a new adventure starting a new tech company. I really enjoy my daily tech challenges, but how many lifetime memories have I made in my tech career? I'm not so sure, but it doesn't compare to my childhood and college years. This article is a good reminder that we need to connect with life.

hotterpop 11y ago
I've thought about this a lot. I'm not a tech billionaire or anything, but I make pretty decent money for being a year out of college. My parents always had a large garden when I was growing up, roughly a half acre, and we kept an assortment of birds and other production animals. I don't think I could ever commit myself to being a full time farmer- not being able to take a break would kill me. That said, there's a lot you can do when you work from home and have a little land. You can cram an incredible amount of growth into a half acre plot, or even a quarter acre- there are a lot of microgardeners in Seattle that work full time jobs and make gardening their passion. Myself, I'd like to have a couple acres to work with, and try to eliminate as much of the grocery store from my diet as I can. A life without fresh vegetables isn't a life to me, and I can't imagine raising my children without the company of animals.

waffle_ss 11y ago

I also grew up on a farm - a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin to be precise, which my father and younger brother still operate. Farming can be awesome. The hard physical work and exercise are satisfying, and you'll often encounter problems that need to be solved quickly and ingeniously (e.g. some implement breaks and you need to come up with a quick fix while the sun's still up). You can really build a camaraderie with your family members / coworkers after slogging through some really physically challenging jobs or solving mentally challenging problems together. The downsides are that the work never ends and you can never take a vacation. The cows always need to be milked (on a very annoying schedule I might add) and fieldwork needs to be done quickly when the weather is right (e.g. "make hay while the sun shines"). And it's really hard to find good hired workers to help out, because nowadays no one wants to do strenuous physical labor for relatively low pay. So on my dad/brother's farm, if one of them gets sick or hurt (another not uncommon danger), it's a big strain for them because they only have a couple high school-aged randos working part-time to help fill in the gaps. For me the big thing that made me want to get away from the farm was the lack of free time to get lost in your own thoughts. All the menial labor, maybe excluding driving tractor, doesn't give your mind a lot of time to wander. Which, after we got our family computer when I was 10, I often found it wanting to do...

Symbiote 11y ago
> The downsides are that the work never ends and you can never take a vacation Agriculture workers in Britain are entitled to paid holiday, sick pay, etc. Does anyone know how this works in practise in the UK, or any other Western/Northern European country? (Is their leave fixed at the employer's convenience, are temps employed in the worker's place, or what?) [1] https://www.gov.uk/agricultural-workers-rights https://www.gov.uk/agricultural-workers-rights
- rsync 11y ago
  You're comparing apples to oranges. The underlying assumption for an agriculture worker in the UK, who is entitled to these protections, is that he is an employee ... not an owner. Contrast this to your parent comment which was very likely a family owned farm at wich they were self-employed. They didn't have worker protections as there was nobody from whom to be protected. Also, it should be noted that your parent comment was speaking of a dairy farm which are notorious for being "prison sentences" - you really can't ever take a vacation if you own your own dairy farm. It's the worst case scenario that he is skething out.

jradd 11y ago

I have the [un]fortunate opportunity to know exactly how hard baling hay really is. I am not always certain the vitality and character gained is necessarily worth the emotional drain. However I am sure there are mainy farms/ranches that get by without the _nepotent_ servitude that comes with it. :)

xwintermutex 11y ago

Trivia: a Johnny Popper is a John Deere model M. I am currently in the process of restoring one. It is called a popper because of its distinct sound, caused by the non-180 degree angle between the two cylinders on the camshaft. I dream about every day to become a farmer.

jroseattle 11y ago
Excellent. Those tractors were rockstars, and ran for years and years. I can still recall that popping sound in my head, many years later. Very distinctive.