Comment by Noaidi

6 hours ago

I’m sorry, I can’t stand that these types of posts keep making it to the front page of hacker news.

It’s been said over and over but they never reveal the deepest truth. We should all be picking berries all the time but we can’t because capitalism steals our time and wealth and makes us suffer.

I mean, can you deny that’s what he’s saying here? “I find it more pleasurable picking berries than writing code or working in a coffee shop or yada yada yada?”

9 comments

Noaidi

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phil21  3 hours ago

Being able to pick berries is fun and relaxing!

Having to pick berries is not.

I have done both throughout my life. I can assure you very few engineers would prefer to be out in a field in the sun or rain working 16 hour days in harvest season to get the berries in before they rot.

And that goes as much for wild berry picking for sustenance, sustenance farming, homesteading, or commercial farming.

I love my little garden. It’s zen for me to be out there trimming, doing soil amendments, picking fruit, etc. I also worked on my parents 2 acre garden that sustained the household (and later sold at market). I highly prefer my easy white collar job to that.

So yeah, I do deny what he’s saying there. I enjoyed programming for fun way more than gardening for survival. Just like I enjoy gardening for fun way more than engineering for survival. The latter scenario is preferable to the former for the vast majority of people.

mlyle  5 hours ago

> We should all be picking berries all the time

I don't think that he wants to pick berries all the time. Or be without his family all the time (even though he prefers being on his own with the berries).

I envy the guy. I wouldn't want to pick berries all the time. But having a routine source of release and tuning out like that which happens to commune with nature and use one's hands...

I was building workbenches for my students last week. A lot of the time was spent outside breaking down pallets and staging things. It was too hot, but I saw the trees sway, the few puffy clouds move, the lizards dart through my path, the squirrels squabble. The few times the wind suddenly picked up felt like heaven. My body ached in new ways. My fingers got into a rhythm and I watched them do things.

I could easily get a job doing work like that. No! I want to be with my students, and I want to work on my hard cerebral projects. But there is a joy to being in nature and to do things with your hands, and there is a rhythm to doing time consuming work, and when we make time for it, it feels really good in a primal way.

  • Noaidi  2 hours ago

    > I don't think that he wants to pick berries all the time.

    I was using that as a metaphor. Meaning, we should be living a life where there is no manufactured societal stress we need to escape.

    • mlyle  1 hour ago

      > Meaning, we should be living a life where there is no manufactured societal stress we need to escape.

      I don't think that at all. I think struggle and making stuff better and working hard and feeling ourselves grow is great.

      And I wish I had something routine like his picking of berries, because sometimes just feeling existence and our place in it... feels really good. I'm envious of the people who find a routine that does this well for them, while I mostly find it by happenstance.

      And I think you do better at the other stuff when you go pick berries.

wffurr  5 hours ago

I think a reminder to periodically log out and go engage in some repetitive task and actually find peace and enjoyment in it is probably a good thing for a lot of folks.

kylemaxwell  5 hours ago

He says he finds it more pleasurable, not that we should be doing it all the time. And he definitely doesn't say anything about capitalism. There are lots of things that are pleasurable but we can't do all the time, and there are lots of things we need to do but aren't pleasurable. Both exist.