[sliverstorm]

Trouble is at the end of the day we need food and shelter. Reading some really fascinating papers or code is great, and so are painting and playing guitar. Do all those things. But most everyone will have to work to live, and working a good job is easier with schooling, and you might meet this girl...

It seems like an artificial treadmill from afar, but IMO the underpinnings are fairly sound. You just have to find the flavor that suits you. Buying farmland and working in your fields 12 hours a day, is still an option :)

[icebraining]

Buying farmland and working in your fields 12 hours a day, is still an option :)

Yeap. Or get some sheep and go graze them in the mountains. There are still people doing that in my Western European country. Plenty of free time to think, if that's what you really want.

[TheOtherHobbes]

I once watched a shepherd put his hand up a sheep's vagina to help with a birth during lambing time.

If you think it's an easy or fun job, you might want to spend some time doing it before committing.

[sgt101]

This isn't the difficult or unpleasant bit of sheep farming, delivering a good lamb is actually wonderful. Sheep in pain, dead lambs, malformed lambs, drowned lambs - these are harder. Carrying injured sheep soaked to the skin in a force 9, that's bloody horrible. Doing it once in a while is invigorating but the grind, year after year all through the winter.

[tonyedgecombe]

Sheep farming looks like really hard work to me, raising animals on marginal land with tough weather thrown in is only for those who really want to do it.

[tonyedgecombe]

Food and shelter can be had relatively cheaply in the Western world, sure you might not be able to live in the centre of London or some hip place in SV but people on low wages mostly find a home.

I sometimes wonder if it would have been better to just accept an undemanding career and spend my spare time reading interesting papers or writing code. However, I did meet this girl ...

[dasmoth]

Buying farmland and working in your fields 12 hours a day, is still an option :)

As someone who's looking in that kind of direction at least semi-seriously, don't underestimate the cost of farmland, especially if you're hoping for land that's reasonably flat and fertile. There probably are places in the world where it remains a cheap option -- but few that are an easy move from the UK. Also, however close to self-sufficiency you come in terms of food, fuel, potentially clothing, there remain expenses that need to be paid in cash.

I'm somewhat hoping that one day I might find a balance between some paid work and some time in my own fields -- but don't expect it to be easy. In the mean time, I get a certain amount from the garden.

[sliverstorm]

Oh yes, farmland is not cheap in much of the world. Unfortunately living your dream frequently takes work to attain.