I think I wrote this in 2002:
http://richsoil.com/typical/
It is a story of a task that
should take about an hour and a half, but ended up taking two days. And the focus of the article is that this is the norm. Oodles of projects go like this. Things that should take a minute, end up taking several hours. A
project that should take a day ends up taking months.
This isn't limited to homesteading. I think we all know somebody who was going to get a bit of remodeling on their home and instead of it taking two days, it has now been "under construction" for years.
It seems like the latter part of my software engineering career was made of this stuff. I would arrive at a company and they are stuck - mired in stuff that keeps them from getting stuff done. I would be paid about five times more than their average engineer, and my job was to get them unstuck. I feel like what I did wasn't all that special, but apparently it was. Every company had a loooooong list of reasons why they were stuck. It was different for each company. All of the people were doing oodles of work, but actual useful product was not coming out the other end. Some of the engineers were glad to see me there, but most of them fought me tooth and nail.
But I've had so many people work against me. So many people put hurdles up or say "that's impossible" that I guess I developed skills to get things done despite the obstacles. From the perspective of many people, I suppose these skills would be labeled as "how to be an asshole." I remember at one time I explained it to somebody as "I got it done, but there were a lot of dead bodies left in my wake." (there were no actual dead bodies. more like, people who hated me more than ever before because they commanded me to do something(s), and I ended up doing my job instead.) So I sacrificed "lovely relationships" on the altar of productivity.
In homesteading and
permaculture it isn't just people. In the article it was the stuck shaft, the zirc, the rain, the log pile .... As the years would pass, there were fewer problems. More infrastructure was built. More systems were created that made things easier. And when there were problems, they weren't as big. And when the time came to move the paddock, I could plan on it taking 40 minutes instead of 90.
Here is an important silver lining in the article: Note how zirc in question was a very weird size. And in the past, it took about two weeks to figure out the weird size and find a place to purchase zircs of the weird size and then stock up on zircs of the weird size. So the 90 minute task took only two days, rather than two weeks plus two days.
Last year, our dump truck, the millennium falcon, needed the love that only a proper diesel mechanic can provide. A
local mechanic said he could do it in three days. Three days later, it would still be three days. Then three more days. Then something about having to go to court - so that would push it up to five days. After the five days, because of the result of the court thing, it would be five - but not a moment long. After those five days, it was now "tomorrow" .... there were a lot of "tomorrows". Three months later, we finally took the dump truck somewhere else. They said it would be a week, and was about a week. So now we know not to trust the local mechanic. Lesson learned. In hindsight, we should have moved it earlier, or gone to a better mechanic from the beginning. And many people hearing the story, offer this useless advice.
With hard work and a heavy dose of give-a-shit, systems are optimized. Forward velocity is bigger each year. The thousands of roadblocks encountered the first year are each overcome, and, in the second year, there is merely one thousand. And in the third year there are only a few hundred.
A lot of these things are that we have optimized our systems: we have a heft supply of zircs, we no longer use the millennium falcon, we have fixed paddocks .... but even more than that, the people involved have built those experiences and know why things are the way they are. And the people that give up easily have left - only the people that will work through the challenges remain.
- - - -
When I was young I rented a big house and rented out the rooms. The rent was cheap because it was a massive shithole. The people that lived there before turned the place into a festering heap. In one room, a
mattress was on the floor and had so much mold that it was sorta superglued to the carpet - we ended up throwing both out. I worked a deal with the landlord that if I cleaned the place up, he would not raise the rent. It took me months, but I finally got the place cleaned up and looking pretty good. People didn't want to rent the rooms before the place was cleaned. But once it was cleaned, I did fine. Of course, most of the people renting the rooms were a bit like the people from before. They just wanted to live their lives there and focus on their own interests - cleaning or improving the house was not their thing. They were cool if the whole place degraded back to what it was. Some people were willing to chip in a little. As is the case with nearly everything, some people made the place better and some people made the place worse. Eventually the landlord doubled the rent and we all left.
Having far too much faith in humanity, I tried this sort of thing a few times. In the end there were some things that were repeated: people that seemed like lovely people would quickly/gladly throw all agreements out the window for some small gain. The people that would honor their agreements were more the exception than the rule. Dishonesty seems so common, I'm pretty amazed the society functions at all.
At the same time, there were situations where people kept their word and things ... prospered.
- - - -
In 2006 I lived in a community. I've told the story several times about when the vegan moved in. Rather than following the way things are, the vegan commanded that all of the current residents must conform to what she commands. It was the beginning of the end.
When you have a group of people, it does seem like one icky person can easily poison an entire group. Easily. In fact, one person can spend 30 seconds saying something nasty and it can take a week until the group can be healthy again.
Further, if one person is trying to build a beautiful future, and 20 people are along for the ride, it seems that one destructive person doesn't need to try very hard to end that beautiful future. Therefore, it does seem like the 20 people need to be passionate about the beautiful future, or else they will be swept away by the first speck of ick.
Another way of looking at it: Poison will happen. A lot. Poison will quickly wash away the dispassionate. So, in a way, having an icky person come by once in a while leaves behind a healthier, more passionate group.
- - - -
So I guess the summary of these life experiences are:
- most people will honor their commitments as long as it is convenient to them. It takes a rare person of magnificent strength of character to honor their commitment when it is inconvenient.
- great prosperity comes from a group of awesome people.
- one bad
apple can spoil the whole bunch
- one amazing person can be amazing despite a hundred bad apples
- most people consume their environment. a few people build a better tomorrow. Builders are drained when surrounded by consumers.
- the trick is to come up with a recipe that incubates the builders and discourages the consumers.
7
Rent if you use it rarely/buy if you use it a lot.
