I am continually surprised by how much that comment resonates with other programmers. I'm glad it brings you some joy and provides the idea of a different path should you decide to make a career change.

Since HN has a lot of Bay Area folks, I feel that I should mention that The Krenov School[0] is but a short drive up the coast from you lot. I haven't been, but the student work I see from there on Instagram is a source of inspiration to me.

[0] https://thekrenovschool.org/

You're not remotely alone in that; this thread is full of people thinking the same. Save up money, buy land, build a small home, become a small scale farmer. That's a fantasy, but quite realizable. OK, first the kids have to grow up and leave the house if you have kids -- if you're not going to have a large income, then you'd best not have large responsibilities. Maybe you can supplement with consulting. Or maybe you'd take a job for a few years then semi-retire again.

You are not alone @mabbo.

https://youtu.be/E0uRr_5zTQg

Follow what makes you happy. You don't get a second life. How long are you going to be dead.

Sure do!

Have you mastered 9 finger touch-typing?

Thanks for the kind words; I had so much fun building that chandelier! Please do reach out; it's always a lot of fun working with people who have a strong vision and working with them to figure out how to realize it in wood.

Regarding stick chairs, I put one together from an accumulation of scrap pieces recently (hey, this could be a leg some day! throws it in the stick chair pile). Putting one together out of random pieces and letting the pieces you have "inform" the design is about as close as it gets to the sheer hackery joy of banging together some wild one-liner (if I use awk this way and pipe it to sort it'll do what I want) in the shell and hitting enter.

It's like, there's no way this could possibly work, and then you're sitting in it marveling at the fact that it only wobbles a bit. And then you level the feet (or fix your quoting), and damn if it doesn't do just what you want it to!

It's also a cool opportunity to make some of your own tools. Jennie Alexander has a great article on making your own tapered reamer[0] (which does sort of require a lathe), and Tim Manney has one on using your reamer to make a tapered tenon cutter[1].

[0] https://www.greenwoodworking.org/steel-saw-tapered-reamer-pl... Dunno what's up with the certificate error, but the site is legit. You don't have to get picky about the compass saw. I did this out of one I picked up at my local large home improvement store.

[1] http://timmanneychairmaker.blogspot.com/2015/06/use-your-rea...

I do it for money and am not financially independent. My partner is the primary income earner in our household, and I would expect that she will retain that position for the foreseeable future.

Our goal is definitely that my contribution to our household economy grows to a more equal role, but she works an professional job and has been at it for a while and moved up over time.