
Go Away: Artist colonies are mysterious places (2012) - samclemens
https://themorningnews.org/article/go-away
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wayneftw
Are there any colonies like this for programmers?

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floren
I've occasionally thought it would be interesting to have a place where
programmers and other people involved in "knowledge work" could live and work
half of each day at intellectual tasks and spend the other half in physical
labor to support themselves. So you get up and milk the cows, then go write
some code, then later in the afternoon hoe the corn. I get most of my best
thinking done when I'm doing a repetitive task like washing the dishes or
maintaining the lawn, anyway.

~~~
stanferder
Seymour Cray used to dig tunnels.

NOTE: This is probably a very dangerous activity.

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Liquix
Heck yeah it's dangerous! Ever read about the bitcoin millionaire who hired
someone to dig a tunnel system under his house and the worker ended up dying
on the job? Crazy story: [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/md-millionaire-charged-
in-death...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/md-millionaire-charged-in-death-of-
man-he-hired-to-dig-tunnels-beneath-his-home/)

~~~
jandrese
To be fair, digging tunnels is not quite as dangerous when your boss isn't a
complete nutcase. This was an exceptional case.

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convFixb
Lovely. This kind of article always ignites some obscure desire to become a
professional writer, even though I would probably be crap at it :)

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floren
The only way to know if you'd be crap is to try writing. Short stories are a
fun place to start, just pick a genre you like and give it a shot. Like
everything else, it takes practice and your first few attempts will be crap.
Advice: don't spend any time on writing forums or subreddits, they're full of
people who'd rather talk about writing than actually do it, but despite all
their theorizing they still can't turn out a decent page.

~~~
CamperBob2
_The only way to know if you 'd be crap is to try writing. Short stories are a
fun place to start, just pick a genre you like and give it a shot._

It's enough to simply read the right authors, or at least it was for me. You
can tell if you belong in their company or not. If you can't, well... that's a
strong hint in itself.

~~~
egypturnash
Find their first published stories. Find their earlier stories, sometimes they
get used to fill out a shorts collection for laughs. Then ask yourself if you
belong in _that_ company.

And then ask yourself if you care, maybe you'll never write enough to have a
shot at a publishing deal, much less a bestseller, but maybe you just like
telling stories to yourself and maybe a few friends.

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jdkee
Obligatory My Dinner with Andre reference:

[https://www.findhorn.org/](https://www.findhorn.org/)

