I've always thought about dropping out of the system; I think it parallels with the "I could rob this bank"thought that every man has. My favorite articles are below http://www.innerexplorations.com/catsimple/2.htm (simple living)

http://www.ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html (dropping out)

http://www.zenzibar.com/articles/worksucks.asp (work sucks)

as far as where I'm at, I'm currently living in a studio barn apartment that was built out for me for around $5k my rent is $50/mo plus electricity for the whole barn ($100) I plan to live there for at least 5 years it is about 600 sqFt. I drive an old truck to my job that is paid for, and I try to save as much as I can; when I see things going south I will build a dome on the farm (150k) w/ 1 acre of land included and then move out there with expenses of <$500 month and live for 10-20 years

What will you do after 10-20 years in a dome?

Be single, that's for sure.

But he coded on his windpowered PC two new UNIX and six Lisp flavors. And he had the time to read all the books recommended here. Do you think that's nothing?!

If you locate the earth-dome somewhere between Marin county and Portland, Oregon (or the Santa Cruz Mountains), there should be no problem finding a suitable mate.

(of course I haven't given up on the opposite sex) I'm waiting on a soul mate (aren't we all) she of course would have to have the same values I try for -money + integrity + honesty + transparency. Finding that is probably like hitting the lottery but better

If a woman were willing to live in a room in a barn, or a farmed dome, you probably wouldn't want her. Read some evolutionary psychology books if you're curious as to why that is. Money is, to women, a proxy for other things.

I don't think we've met the same women. Evolutionary psychology makes for very reasonable generalizations that just happen to completely ignore things like cultural values.

There are some pretty fun, reasonably attractive women up on the northern coast of California (Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte counties), and likely further up the coast into Oregon, that would be intrigued by that kind of lifestyle.

Don't women tend to go for the starving artist? But I think your more general point is sound. If you forsake money, you will need to find another signal of fitness, like power or being a great dancer.

In the bay area, standard evolutionary psychology doesn't apply. The millions of dollars you make are negated by your bad hairdo and greenish-white LCD tan. The best bet for finding a woman in the bay is to get tattoo sleeves and become a popular bartender.

From my experience its the other way around. Your bad hairdo and greenish-white LCD tan are more than negated by the millions of dollars you make. That certainly seemed to be the case when I went anywhere nice.

I assume you've given up on the opposite sex completely?

"raising and slaughtering rabbits"

"catching and cooking fish and turtles"

"distilling your own moonshine"

Those late night coding sessions with macaroni & cheese and Milwaukee's Best are looking better and better.

Milwaukee's Best? Really?

Buy some real beer - it isn't that much more expensive ;-)

Just a joke.

Would you rather drink Milwaukee's Best or home distilled moonshine?

<fumbles for Braille keyboard after a bad batch>

Home Distilled Moonshine for the win!

...or trade the rabbits you killed for miller instead ;)

It would be a losing trade: http://www.janusmuseum.org/panabasis/nov05.htm

IDK. Sam Adams is $7 for a 6 pack. I once bought 30 of the Beast for less than that. Was a long time ago though.

They call 'em session beers for a reason.

(He says, surrounded by empty cans of Old Style ($5.99 the 12-pack) and the husks of half-written late-night defuns.)

In fairness, I don't think they had lean cuisine and Ramen noodles when this was written.

This has always been a topic of interest to me. The "System" (as much as/if there is one) is designed to facilitate a certain objective. In our case, economic growth and individual wealth. For brevity's sake, I'll skip the digression about clustering, distributing and distributing unevenly.

So, if that systemic objective does not make your life meaningful, what do you do? The way of the world is towards this objective because it's the best progress we've made so far towards meeting most people's basic human needs. Escaping to a different country with human rights and a different objective is not very feasible.

Changing the system isn't a good option because for most people the system is fine. There are also tons of people for whom it's not fine, but they don't notice and it's not necessarily our business to try to wake them up unless they ask.

So I think the best option is, like the author is suggesting, to opt out as best you can. Find what makes you happy and base your life around that, while minimizing your conflict with the governing body (e.g. they pay property taxes, rather than bury a bus full of guns and plan to resist--that would be un-lazy and make them miserable).

Had I not gotten married (which I don't regret, btw), I would have continued to work to fuel my desire to buy up a big plot of land that I don't have to mow and building a minimal but fully livable tree house. Since I still find that interesting, I'll keep designing and hacking and do it when the kids are off to college and my wife's making enough money to pay for her shoe fetish. Works for me.

"Changing the system isn't a good option because for most people the system is fine. There are also tons of people for whom it's not fine, but they don't notice and it's not necessarily our business to try to wake them up unless they ask."

I bet if you went and made friends with a few of those people, you wouldn't feel that way.

One thing is always funny to me about people living out of the ‘system’: They all forget that they still depend on the ‘system’.

Remember the dad working for short terms? She is working for neighbors for little pay? They even buy fuel! lol how about electricity? They read books and enjoy them.

Without the ‘system’ they will mot live the little revolution of living out of the ‘system’.

I guess there comes a point where if there is no society - would you really want to live? What is the point if you are the only person left in your "dome" ? I know some people that would be fine with that. I try to put as much distance between them and myself. I am a social creature, and always will be.

This was written in 1978, although I find it a bit bizarre it would be interesting to see where this girl is now since she would be about 30 years older.

[edited to fix math mistake]

Apparently, you aren't the first to wonder: http://www.grannymillerblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/where-are-y...

But I think your arithmetic is a bit off. It says she was 19 in 1978, so that would make her closer to 50 (49).

My favourite bit is the bit about the "coming age of shortages". This was written in 1978.

I think I'll stick to doing stuff I enjoy and earning money for it, and then spending that money on stuff I want.

I think that all throughout history, man has expected the future to be far worse than the present. And all throughout history, the future has turned out to be better.

"all throughout history, the future has turned out to be better"

splutter Just...no. 1913? 1928? 14th-century Europe before the Black Death turned up? Rome at its height?

Yes, things are pretty damn good right now (in Europe and North America, at least). But history isn't a stately progress of life getting better - there have been plenty of times when things have fallen apart.

As for expectations: there are always some waiting for the end-times with barely-concealed glee. But equally there are usually some expecting continuity, or gradual progress, or imagining cycles of historical recurrance.

They've almost never been the cataclysms people have expected. Global cooling, thermonuclear war, never materialized.

The ones that get us are never seen coming.

There we agree totally.

Also from a long view, the future does keep getting better. It isn't a straight line, but it probably looks like one if you zoom out a bit.

That's just a continuation of C/C++ anyhow.

With the recent dramatic rise in food prices it doesn't sound so bad.

Here in UK rice is up 100%, cooking oil up 80%, flour up #40%, gas/electricity up ~70% etc.

We are lucky though, at least there are no food riots like in south/south-east asia at the moment.

Any how-to with the word "Rassle" in one of the chapter titles is an immediate win in my book.

The thought of living off rabbits, when beans cost 50 cents a pound and are easy to grow is just irrational. I'll stick to my serious survivalist tracts, thanks.

Don't knock it 'till you've tried it. Rabbits are decent eating.

The eyeballs are chock full of electrolytes and other micronutrients.

Just don't eat nothing but rabbit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_starvation

Romanticized suicide (essentially) is one way out of the chains of 'modern' life.

I'd still have to work with that advise.

Living with no job? I do it everyday.

Google says it is 'human flesh'