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Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

It's not gonna pay well for long, unless you find yourself a very tight and lucrative niche. My goal on the other hand is to buy a house in the woods by end of the year and become a woodworker before I have to be assimilated by the AI wave, maybe doing some coding by hand just for the fun of it on the side. Can't wait for "vibe coding" and "2 years of Copilot experience" to figure among the average list of job requirements.

To quote the young'uns, we are so cooked.

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I bought my wife's grandma's house in rural central Louisiana so that her grandpa could retire and not have to worry about medical bills or anything like that. It already has a "woodshop"[1] on it, and when the contractor finishes (or at least starts) on repairing the years of neglect, I will also be a woodworker in the woods.

I'm currently a "woodworker" in suburban Houston, but usually only average $500-ish per month (heavily loaded toward a couple of times of year - Mid Spring, Back to School, Christmas).

1: https://www.icloud.com/photos/#/icloudlinks/08c7DUB5txbSRiCs...

I'm not sure posting a photo with EXIF location data under a full name is a good idea.

The evolution of the internet has been fun to watch:

1994-1998 – Don't give out any personal information online.

1998-2004 – Well, maybe just don't give out your real name.

2004-2010 – Never mind. Your full name is fine. Just stay away from sharing racy or compromising photos.

2010-2016 – Actually, the photos are okay as long as your "bathing suit area" remains modest.

2016-2020 – On second thought, bare all if you wish. But, please, don't spread misinformation.

2020-2025 – Ugh, fine. Whatever you do, do not share your exact GPS coordinates!

My home address is public record as well. My business locations are also. If someone wants me, I'm available for them to kill.

> and become a woodworker

Hey we can't ALL have the same plan, man! The tech oligarchs that own all of society's wealth will only need so much bespoke furniture!

More seriously, my plan had been to build a decent savings and go work for the USPS or the local public transit company, supplemented with savings interest and maybe some woodworking income. But then the 2024 election happened so who fucking knows anymore.

Nah, I plan on owning a chunk of acres and start my own homestead. Raise a few animals like some sheep, goats, rabbits, and of course chickens. Build a nice green house and large garden. Just need to find the right plot of land before making it a serious go. Oh, and can't forget the first step. Gotta win the lottery to pay for it. Not all of have those cushy FAANG salaries.

There are rural land loan companies. Or buy with friends or family. I know people who've done the above and don't tell anybody but it's working out fine.

>There are rural land loan companies.

The point is to not owe people money so that you are self sufficient and not need to make money.

> Or buy with friends or family.

yeah, but i don't like people. /s

I actually want to do everything you're outlining as well, but here in the northeast they're trying to sell ~1 acre for > $100,000 in a lot of desirable "rural" towns. Definitely makes it harder to get into unless you want to commit to far far north.

I've been watching a lot of TV shows that have revealed a lot of pros/cons about different areas of the country. The further north means a much shorter growing season which makes a greenhouse even more important. It also means a lot more infrastructure is required to keep any livestock alive during the longer winters. Places like Texas goes the other direction where the heat during the long summers is brutal, but it means early spring and late fall crops. I really wouldn't want to be any further north than 40°.

Got to find that perfect plot of land that has water, some trees for wood, some land that can be farmed and hopefully a clear sky to the south for solar. Oh, and it's gonna need to be far enough from a city so my telescope can finally be used the way it was meant.

> The point is to not owe people money so that you are self sufficient and not need to make money.

Trouble is, if you become self-sufficient the government will soon swoop in and try to take a piece of the pie, and now you're back to owing people money again.

The ideal is to owe so much money that you become "too big to fail". Then you get all the benefits of being self-sufficient, but with nothing on paper to share.

> go work for the USPS or the local public transit company

Those are very honest and useful jobs for society. More than being paid $250,000 a year to design the next startup frontend by copy-pasting some template

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