paul wheaton wrote:
I feel like the bootcamp is a solution for millions of people. And we cap out at 20.
I would think the bootcamp would be jam-packed-full right now with a huge waiting list. But ... nope.
Oh man… it feels so completely obvious to me, yet so hard to express… let me give it another go.
First, start with an assumption that is nearly universal in the usa, and partially correct: manual labor is not hard to learn. There is skilled work - construction, woodworking, the “trades” - that are acknowledged to take knowledge and experience. Then there is Chopping wood, digging ditches, peeling logs, that can be learned in a couple of hours on the job. Farming is a funny one - most “educated” people will unconsciously think it can’t be that hard. Farmers know better, but they already have the skills. So right or wrong, those millions of people who would benefit are already going to be skeptical that they need even a shitty school to learn the skills.
given that assumption: what does the bootcamp look like from the outside? I have looked at it in a fairly superficial manner. I looked over the initial website, and I looked at a BEL thread or two. This probably isn’t a complete picture, but it may not be far off from what someone stumbling on it might see. And while I don’t see it the way I describe it below, I think it is a fair picture of what others do.
What I saw was “learn homesteading skills and get a free bunk and food!” Ok, what are the homesteading skills? I saw splitting and stacking wood, building fence, peeling logs, planting trees and seed, harvesting rhubarb, and maybe a bit of repair work on one of the buildings. I did not see any indication that I would be learning, say, woodworking or building from a master. It certainly isn’t an apprenticeship with a skilled artisan. It sounds like a little of this and a little of that, with most of it being low skill manual labor that you could learn to do in a day. But I am being encouraged to stay for a year or more, to “learn the skills”.
At this point, the question comes up: “so I am basically spending the first week learning low skill labor, followed by months of doing that work, generating resources and building up land that is owned by one guy? That sounds a lot like my hard work is benefiting someone else, and I don’t even get a salary.”
Again, I know that this is not what is happening! For one thing, I know that the work the boots do is not directly benefitting Paul unplumbed, unpowered buildings don’t add much to land value. Nor do hugels. So there is almost no benefit to Paul directly, and if he does get anything, he probably pays way more than its value in food costs.
But to the casual observer, it is going to sound a lot like the Otis offers to the pep2 person as described in the live stream: “come to my place and put your muscle into improving my land for me, and then we will say goodby, and I will reap the benefits of your labor”.
Don’t know if this makes sense. My hope is that it does, and that it might offer some insight into how to market the program so that it sounds more appealing to those who would benefit. Like emphasizing the skills people don’t feel they could learn on their own.
People actually settling down on an acre is a whole different issue. It also goes back to what Alexandra was saying on the live stream: she isn’t just looking for a place to live, she wants the security of ownership, and something to pass on to her kids. No idea how to solve that.
