“The more I work in tech, the more I wish I was independently wealthy.”
I love how people use the word “just” when making statements about the simple life.
Simple ain’t always cheap…
Comment on The unAbomber. Otherwise, I agree.
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
The longer I work in tech, the more I want to move to a farm 50km from neighbours with just me, my partner, a couple dogs, chickens, and cows.
MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world 1 day ago
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 12 hours ago
Simple ain’t easy either. Fix yer plumbing, fix your roof, fix yer fence, feed yer chickens (yes, every day!), clean their poop, etc. etc. etc.
Homesteading is a lot of work, and you can’t just go away for a weekend to visit a friend or explore a new city. It needs constant attention, and the more “independent/self-reliant/off-the-grid” you want to be, the more you need to do everything yourself.
And even then you need to buy supplies and materials. You’re not going to grow a year’s-worth of food in your backyard vegetable patch, and you’re not gonna make your own lumber, pvc, copper wire, etc.
There’s a lot you can do to achieve a greater degree of independence, but ultimately it’s still dependencies all the way down.
Even the Buddha recognized the interconnectedness of everything in the world; he wasn’t just some detached stoic with a community of self-sustaining monks. They depended on the generosity of their surrounding communities, and to this day Buddhist monks still do.
stickly@lemmy.world 58 minutes ago
A lot depends on how many luxuries you can go without. Tiny house means less work; no modern plumbing means no maintenence; ditch big hvac systems and only worry about heating/cooling a room or two; no indoor wiring needed if you only have a couple solar lamps. Yeah you’ll still have some reliance on getting stuff you can’t fabricate but it will be much less stuff
Livestock complicates things a bunch but it can be easier if you’re OK living off a simpler vegetarian diet and putting in the upfront legwork for more durable/low maintenance food sources (native food forest).
Your life might be dark and shitty but it will definitely be simpler and easier. But if you want to optimize for a higher QoL you’ll probably have to join a cultist farm commune.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 41 minutes ago
Not every commune is a cult, and we should really break that stigma…
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 23 hours ago
Depends how you live, but yeah. It can be expensive.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 day ago
you should look at open land out in deep rural areas.
you’re more likely to kill yourself than get a farm these days.
not since the corporations bought up all the farm land.
ellen.kimble@piefed.social 22 hours ago
I’m in tech and live off grid, best of both worlds
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 22 hours ago
Goals.
ragingHungryPanda@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com 23 hours ago
Around COVID times, I had a coworker who bought a 100+ year old farmhouse out in Minnesota and we could see over time how he was fixing it up. Then he quit and started his homestead. Enviable man.
but yeah, I’ve heard of a lot of people in tech quitting at 20 years, which seems high? but at around 13+ years, I get it. I just don’t really know what I’d go to
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 21 hours ago
I work in tech, but not “retire at 45” tech. I’ll be working till I’m 70.
osanna@lemmy.vg 19 hours ago
I was in tech for more than a decade. I will NEVER go back to it. It’s life sucking shit piled on more shit.
FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Wait, are you sure youre not talking about an actual journalist with actual ethics stuck working in modern-day “journalism”?
ragingHungryPanda@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com 16 hours ago
I feel that right there
osanna@lemmy.vg 19 hours ago
are you sure you don’t want spyware in your house? Are you sure you don’t want new shinies?! daddy oligarchs told me that was the most important thing in life.
THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world 1 day ago
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 7 hours ago
It’s a common escapist fantasy but are you equipped to handle the needs of chickens and cows?
Rugnjr@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 hours ago
It’s a common criticism but do you think a reasonably smart person couldn’t struggle through it? I reckon they’d be especially likely to succeed if they were equipped with a good book and some humility. Humility can’t be given but pieces of advice can. Do you have any good ones?
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 1 hour ago
Well there’s that word, “struggle”, do you think the average city dweller raised on video games and car trips to Walmart really understands where food come from, or how?