[tremon]

I don't think it has necessarily to do with burnout, or even with the more general notion "city-dwellers feel detached from nature so they romanticize it". Apart from that, there is also the entrepreneurial spirit (as well as the hacker spirit) of wanting to do things yourself, either because you think you can do better or because you want to decrease your reliance on others. And those are very well represented here.

[viraj_shah]

I agree with the entrepreneurial DIYer aspect of it. But I do think sitting in front of screens all day screams for a longing for nature.

Also I think there might a counterculture aspect to it, which ties in to your reliance point. Growing your own food is one of the most subversive thing you can do. Get solar and a few other things, and you're completely self-reliant.

It allows one to take a shortcut to the fisherman life, in the fisherman and the banker story.