On Going Feral (2009) | Hacker News Reader

On Going Feral (2009)

ribbonfarm.com

20 pointshardmaru14 comments

Recently visited home for a week and a half in Texas while working remote from my job in DC. My dad thought it was strange I was carrying my laptop whenever we went out for food during business hours, and my mom didn't understand why I couldn't keep doing chores all day. My younger brothers are more with it, so they understood. Maybe next time I visit I'll stay at an airbnb!

I still managed to get work done, but he's absolutely right when he says "But in humans it (going feral) can happen faster, since most of our domestication is through education and socialization rather than breeding." Being in my childhood bedroom made me feel like a kid again.

I've been remote for about 5 years now. I work for an eat what you kill consultancy so the metric is easy. Keep my accounts growing and Sales is happy. Keep about 75% of my time billable and Delivery is happy. Quit working at 5 and my wife is happy. That's all there is to it.

“I inhabit physical environments where old communities are crumbling, and people are tentatively groping for social structure through meetups”... “DC area”. Hey, I recognize that place. Great description of northern virginia in 2009 and somewhat still today. Very transient, inhuman place. But safe and affordable.

Naps. TFA mentions it in passing, but that's the biggest difference I notice in working remote or working in an office.

"I'm tired, I think I'll have a nap now" is the greatest single freedom that remote working has given me.

I also enjoy "this is hard, I'm going to lie in the hammock and think about it for a while"

I do the equivalent at work - go away from the computer and think. Well I'm a contractor / consultant with many home office hours now, but I did the same as an employee. In most cases I leave my phone at the desk because a) it helps me focus (same as leaving the computer behind) and b) it signals that I'm not wasting time, I'm thinking. No one has ever complained.

From photos of some development offices of companies that "get" software, the usefulness of hammock-driven development seems well understood there.

When I used to smoke I had the same thing with going outside to stand in the cold and think.

Also, strangely, I think the "deep breathing" of smoking helped with the cognitive processes. That and the release from the nicotine cravings ofc.

Losing the ability to nap was the single most difficult adjustment I had to make when I went back to an office job after seven years working remote. I didn't take long naps, but the ability to lie down and close my eyes for twenty minutes after lunch every day made a big difference. It was also helpful, when I really needed to get some serious thinking done, to have somewhere I could lay back and shut my eyes and really just focus on the problem for a while. The one and only time I tried this at Microsoft, someone burst into my office in panic when they saw me lying down, afraid I had collapsed from a stroke.

I work for myself, from home. I answer to no nobody (except clients, which I can drop at my own risk if I choose) and I do what I want when I want. it’s both the single greatest development in my life and the scariest. greatest for obvious reasons (absolute freedom, my time and output are my own, I can be extremely productive in ways I can optimize, I can work on my house and hobbies as appropriate) but scariest because now that I’ve tasted this life I don’t know how I’ll ever go back. and the limit of what one individual can do (for humanity, I mean) from his house is unsatisfying in the long run.

I'm in the same boat as you, about 10 years in. I've tried going back twice, and both times has not gone well. These were warm positions too; one had been a client in the past, and the other was run by an old friend. Both times the lack of autonomy got me.

I'm in the same place as you too... starting to wonder about overall impact in the long run, and haven't come up with a plan yet. Glad to hear I'm not the only one :)

so far my plan is this (of which i’m currently on step 1):

- take online classes through Harvard for a certificate that will emulate the CS background i didn’t get in school

- apply to grad schools

- get a graduate degree studying AI and cognitive science

- afterwards either:

- get a position so deeply rewarding that i don’t mind loss of autonomy

- get a position so high-paying that i don’t mind loss of autonomy

- continue working as i do now but be able to take on much more interesting projects and potentially try to contribute to the various nonprofits and open ventures that deal with AI/AI risk in my free time

- solve the hard problem of consciousness AND the mind-uploading situation and achieve immortality.

all of those 4 options seem good to me, so i’m ok with this plan (notice how it conveniently ignores massive student debt :)

“Cloudworker lifestyles — mobile, home-based, unshaven, pajama-clad and Starbucks-swilling — create a psychological transformation that is very similar to what happens when animals go feral. In animals, it takes a couple of generations of breeding for the true wild nature to re-emerge. Cats, for instance, revert to a basic, hardy, stocky, short-haired robustly-interbred tabby variety. Dogs become mutts. But in humans it can happen faster, since most of our domestication is through education and socialization rather than breeding.”

:-)

hits close... I have not been to the office in over two months. Longest before that was three months. When I first started to work remote I felt nervous about being away for more than a week or two, thinking it would cause problems. As time has gone on though, I started to feel that as long as I have a project to work on and stay verifiably productive, I don't worry about it as much anymore.

I think it would be good for a lot of us to get away from the "normal" way of life to discover who we really are.

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