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Cottage Computer Programming (1984) (atariarchives.org)
92 points by phenylene on Sept 2, 2014 | hide | past | favorite | 30 comments



"Overall, I believe the computer age favors the individual and that resistance to the individual work style is the last gasp of the dying industrial age. Many software companies put their faith in committees because they believe this is the way things have always been done. In fact, most unique modern achievements have been the product of individuals or very small groups, including relativity theory, the airplane, the laser and the computer itself. Until now, individual achievement has been exceptional in a mass society, even though the exceptions often transform that society. The deliberate cultivation of individual creativity may end up being the most important social result of computer technology. Either that, or cottage programmers like myself will simply have more time to cultivate our gardens. "

This is a view I hold but very rarely hear expressed in my day to day working environment where committees of people from various organisations work together to agree or disagree on plans that are always proposed by one, or very few, individuals. The majority, even in a committee environment, are superfluous from the perspective of productivity, though not from the perspective of governance.


I think almost any creative task, programming included, is best done by an individual. Writing, art, and even music are very individualistic disciplines. When others are involved, there is usually a leader or someone who the small group revolves around. Large groups are unable to attain a creative vision and generally resort to compromise and group-think. While these things are useful in other situations, they kill creativity. In my experience programming both solo and in various sized teams, the best outcome usually came from individual effort, even when that effort was split up amongst two or three individuals. Being able to split up tasks in such a way that the individual pieces allow for creativity by the individual is key to getting excellent results.


Yes creativity as an individual pursuit, and the acknowledgement (in my mind,) of nearly every human pursuit as being a creative endeavour, is not a vision of loneliness, of people performing in isolation not caring for anything else.

These people can work together through their individual pursuits. But how to accomplish that successfully?


There's been a backlash idea since 2008 or earlier, just google for "the myth of the lone programmer". There you will find countless blog posts from non entities busting the myth wide open with tales from their years in the trenches as part of a large corporate team reinventing the wheel.

Whereas I tend to find that if any state of the art is moved forward in a large sweep, usually an individual ends up being given a larger amount of credit than a collective.

This is probably a cognitive bias, I am sure I and a person with an opposing view could trade exhaustive counter examples.

Also I think certain toolsets suit individuals better than collectives and the collective toolsets are in vogue at the moment. Thinking LISP or C versus JAVA or ++C.


usually an individual ends up being given a larger amount of credit than a collective

A critical observation. It's much easier for our minds to simplify down to one name, one face.

Who landed on the Moon? Armstrong, of course. Nevermind the countless astronauts, engineers, mathematicians, and physicists who put him there.

It's not something to be upset about, but good to remember when you hear stories about how one man did this or that.


I agree and I think you're coming to a problem with how we think about achievement in general. Getting to the moon was the end result of many small achievements that were themselves the result of individual pursuit.

I guess it is fair enough that at some point we try to put a label or handle on a string of achievement. But clearly it can't be attributed at that level.


Sports teams overcome this. Sure there are superstars, but their team is absolutely famous too. Maybe NASA needs to brand their project teams?


There has been a fairly big swing back towards "programming is a team sport" since then.

My memories of the 80s and 90s was that programming was something frequently done in a suburban, or sometimes even rural, setting. Since then, there's been a move towards seeing technology as an urban phenomenon (and a resurgence of urbanism in general). I do wonder if these trends are related.


It looks like Paul is still working on his own ( via http://www.arachnoid.com/administration/index.html )

"In 1988 Lutus cast off his lines and began what was to become a four-year solo circumnavigation of the world in a small sailboat. More recently, Lutus has divided his time between writing articles on diverse topics and exploring the wilder regions of Alaska to photograph grizzly bears."


He's also a pretty active HN user: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=lutusp


Joey Hess (of git-annex fame, and HN user) lives in quite similar setting.

To have an idea of this home habits, have a look at the notes written for caretakers of his home while he is away: https://joeyh.name/blog/entry/notes_for_a_caretaker/


Interesting. This stood out, for me:

Consider brushing the cat, with the folding saw, on the left-side porch steps, every other day. Hairballs..

What? He brushes his cat with a saw? I haven't ever had a cat, but that sounds af it might make the cat somewhat upset. Or perhaps the saw is fantastically dull? Interesting. :)


In urban areas one uses a shedding blade. 'Out here' the concepts of modularity and reuse are vital to survival.


Can someone explain or link to the "fridge" that he has that appears to be some sort of heat-powered device? (light/chimney/warm to touch) I've never heard of such a thing.


> heat-powered device?

Propane gas appliances such as refrigerators and freezers are common 'off the grid'.

As one would 'fork' off a code base (e.g. before systemd), the same can be done with farm / self sufficient technology. Check out _Farm Tools_, by Michael Partridge.

Everything I did when I moved to a rural area was wrong because I was using a late 20th century mindset. The late 1800's had tremendously better ways of doing things.

Try thinking of the Amish as late adopters, instead of being backward. Some of the things they do, such as converting electrical tools to use compressed air, will give some great insights.



Thank you for the link.

I live much the same way for the same reasons and this:

> drain water from trays of salt underneath the pantry shelves, and run the fan.

is going to be a game changer.


Can you explain this one? I'm trying to picture why one would have a tray of salt under the shelf, why it would have water in it, and how to drain the water without draining the (assumed to be dissolved) salt.


My guess is that it is being used as a dehumidifier. The salt will absorb moisture from the air since it is hygroscopic. However, I can't imagine there being a significant effect without a lot of salt.

The salt probably would not dissolve entirely, so you could strain it. Some dissolved salt would be lost each time. You could also cook/boil off the water, but that would require a lot of energy for an off-the-grid cabin.


> My guess is that it is being used as a dehumidifier.

Yes.

> without a lot of salt.

25 & 50 pound bags are fairly common to buy and store.

> You could also cook/boil off the water, but that would require a lot of energy for an off-the-grid cabin.

Or moved outside into the sunshine under glass to evaporate.

A large mistake I used to often make was trying to design self contained solutions. Keeping modularity in mind, and moving things about during the day solves a huge range of problems.

A cast off sliding glass door makes an excellent alternative to herbicides - just lay it down on the grass. It also aids in heating water, drying clothes, meat, herbs - what have you.


"A mistress of perfect consistency, the computer rejects all but the flawless, offering no explanation. When the acceptable is finally offered, the machine's acceptance is total, unwavering and eternal."

Wonderful.


My wife and I are a year or two away from a cottage endeavor. I'm not sure why I'm wired the way that I am, but hermitage has a romantic appeal. Distractions and potential interruptions make me anxious. My disconnect with nature and the food that I eat does as well.

It's an odd juxtaposition -- I love technology. I just dislike what comes with it.


It would be beneficial to sit for an afternoon or two with someone who's done it and is willing to talk about it.

Most of the recent technology is pretty weak compared to 100 years ago. This is what my cordless drill looks like: imgur.com/ZWCcuyr.jpg.

As I mentioned elsewhere here, I did _everything_ wrong when I moved rural. Much of ESR's Art of Unix Programming is a blueprint for self sufficient living if you squint a bit.

Begin collecting pre-WWII farm tools ASAP. Sell most everything you currently own before you move - it's worse than useless.

Understand something - at some point you will become angry about how you used to live. It's okay. At some point you won't be able to visit a city without feeling a deep pity for the people living there. That's okay too. You may reach the point where you know you can't return to city living, because the people are crazy. They will feel the same way about you by that time. By then, there's no going back. You will have learned the difference between civilization and domestication.

Good luck.


I'm not sure it's a particularly rare combination. There's little about technology that demands urbanism, and in the 80s and 90s there seemed to be a fairly clear picture (exemplified by the concept of telecommuting) of technology as a way to escape from urbanism, or at least to negate many of its historical advantages.

There does seem to have been a bit of a reaction to that. Partly, it might be down to the difficulty of providing fast networks in remote places. But there does seem to be a resurgence of urbanism at the moment.

I hope your plans go well!


Interesting, my wife and I are planning this now. I posted a comment about it.


I'd love to live like this and have an SO that would as well. The problem for us is: food. We've come to be accustomed to a wide variety of multi-cultural cuisines.

We both work remotely and can live where we want. We've recently experimented in living in more "out there" places, but in the end we're moving back to civilization because we want our Japanese/Mexican/Indian/Vietnamese...

Not sure what the answer is for this problem. We can both cook but even sourcing the ingredients for a lot of non-American food is nearly impossible in even a second tier city.


Amazon is a big help for my wife and I. We get our staples at the groceries around here, but we get our more "out there" ingredients from the web. For the fresh ingredients you may be out of luck, but you might be able to grow your own.


Cool, I'll have to check it out. One thing we've struggled with is fresh seafood. I think that's going to be tricky to find although I would definitely order from some overnight rush delivery if there was such a thing.


I couldn't pinpoint exactly how I recognized Lutus before and then I remembered:

http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.php

This was the first app I used when I was about 18 learning HTML...and my first real understanding of free software with his "Care Ware" philosophy:

http://www.arachnoid.com/careware/index.html


Interesting, my wife and I are leaving silicon valley and moving to a house on a lake in a remote area of another state....We really feel like the goals we have are accomplished easier with a more remote lifestyle..




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