403: forbidden

Back in February 2010, I realized that I didn't want to do chemistry or math for a living. That was my first senior year of undergrad, and the realization didn't come with a package of "what I want to do instead".

I don't normally get clear telegraphs from my (Meyers-Briggs) Feeling function, but over the last six months or so I've been sidling up to the idea that maybe I want to farm. Not just hobby-farming, but as a primary source of income. (And then I think, isn't that a job reserved for other, more special people than I? This is clearly bullshit when taken at face value, but also an indicator that I might've struck gold. After all, I wouldn't think such things about work I didn't value.)

I've also been hesitant to say anything to most of you readers, because the perception of farming among Americans is that it's as glamorous as shoveling manure, and often doesn't pay beans on top of that. With a good business plan, appropriate insurance, and the advice of people who're more experienced at it than I, I expect to be able to avoid the debt slavery* that plagues the profession. Can't do much about the manure-shoveling part, though. Animals are where the profit margin is.

And then about two weeks ago, with the stress of trying to find an apartment weighing on me heavily, I got one of those rare crystal-clear imperatives from myself. It can be roughly put into words as "Go farm. As soon as possible. You will forever regret not trying." And that last sentence I know to be true.

I'm not planning to abandon undergrad; I'm staying with zeighyfiv, which means staying in the greater Boston area for some years yet. (Also, I may need a day job someday.) But it does inform what direction I ought to be taking.

Here goes nothing?




* There's a joke among farmers in the U.S.: "What would you do if you won the lottery?", "Oh, probably keep farming until the money ran out."

I like working with big, messy systems with lots of variables. From where I stand now, that's the most prominent thread connecting what I've enjoyed about studying STEM fields.

It makes me wonder whether I wouldn't be better off in a field that's generally acknowledged to be difficult to handle with reductionistic methods. (Classic example being the life sciences - if you take a creature apart to try to figure out how it works, it very quickly stops working.)