Farming is a completely different type of job than software development or designing integrated circuits.
When you program a computer, it does what you tell it to. You can diagnose what's wrong and fix it. Whether you can fix things is based a lot on your own skill and knowledge.
If you become a farmer, you can do everything skillfully and still have a crop fail. You are at the mercy of the weather.
Have you even grown a small vegetable garden? That might be a first step to get some idea what you are facing if you go into farming.
Don't assume farming will be easy. It can be one of the toughest jobs. Spend some time out on a farm helping out with whatever needs to be done to research this option. If you enjoy being outdoors, and are ok with the uncertainty of farming, then maybe it is for you. If you love the land, then farming may be for you.
Since your wife wants to move to another country, I think it is worth going through the immigration processes for various countries. Immigration processes can take years, and still have an uncertain result, so you might as well get started. If you can afford to visit some countries, that may make things clearer too. There are more changes to moving to another country than just money. Climate and culture can have a big effect on a person's life.
Where I live in Canada, a starting salary for a software developer can be about CAD $40 000. So the $100 000 figure other people are talking about isn't applicable everywhere.
Regarding freelance work, do you have enough time in the day that you could start doing freelance work while still working at the job you have? If you take on some side projects, you could see how that goes without quitting your job.
I think part of what this decision comes down to is what your goals are, and what the goals of your family are. What are your priorities? What is most important to you?
I think it could help to take the first steps on all three options at once, to get a taste of what each of them is like. Things might become clearer as you get more information. Right now I don't think you know enough about each option to make a good decision. Research is what is required.
Also, I read a book recently about making good decisions. It is called "Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. There are some techniques in there, like asking yourself, "Imagine a year from now the project I was attempting to do has failed. What are the reasons?" that have helped me figure some things out in my own life.
Hi all,
Mostly lurker, I very rarely post, mostly just read the excellent posts here.
I'm a Filipino, which means I am a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines. My annual salary, before taxes, is about $20,000 (USA dollars). I work at an IC development company (12 years at this company), developing the logic parts of LCD display drivers. My understanding is that the median US salary for this kind of job is about $80,000 -> $100,000 a year. This is a fucking worthless third world country, so the government eats up about ~30% of my salary and converts it to lousy service, rich government officials, bad roadworks, long commute times, and a (tiny) chance of being falsely accused of involvement in the drug trade and shot without trial. Thus my take-home pay amounts to about $15,000 a year. China is also murmuring vague threats about war because of the South China Sea (which the local intelligentsia insist on calling the West Philippine Sea); as we all know, the best way to survive a war is not be in one.
This has lead to my deep dissatisfaction with my current job.
I'm also a programmer as a hobby, and have been programming for 23 years (I started at 10 years old on Atari LOGO; I know a bunch of languages from low-level X86 assembly to C to C++ to ECMAScript to Haskell, and am co-author of SRFI-105 and SRFI-110). My understanding is that a USA programmer would *start* at the $20,000-a-year level (?), and that someone with experience can probably get twice that, and a senior one can get $100,000/year.
As we all know, once a third world citizen starts having first world skill level, he starts demanding first world renumeration also.
I've been offered a senior software developer job at a software company, offering approximately $22,000/year; because of various attempts at tax reform it offers a flat 15% income tax, so I can expect about $18,000/year take home pay. I've turned it down with a heavy heart, because seriously, $22,000/year at 15% tax for a senior software developer?
Leaving my current job is something I've been planning on doing, and I intend to do so early next year. The increasing stress (constant overtime, management responsibilities (I'm a tech geek with passable social skills, and exercising my social skills drains me), 1.5-hour commutes) and the low renumeration makes me want to consider my alternate options.
My options are:
1. Get myself to the USA, Europe, or other first-world country somehow, and look for a job there. High risk, high reward, much higher probability of surviving to the singularity (can get cryonics there, can't get it here). Complications: I have a family: a wife, a 4-year-old daughter, and a son on the way. My wife wants to be near me, so it's difficult to live for long apart. I have no work visa for any first-world country. I'm from a third-world country that is sometimes put on terrorist watch lists, and prejudice is always high in first-world countries.
2. Do freelance programming work. Closer to free market ideal, so presumably I can get nearer to the USA levels of renumeration. Lets me stay with my family. Complications: I need to handle a lot of the human resources work myself (healthcare provider, social security, tax computations, time and task management - the last is something I do now in my current job position, but I dislike it).
3. Become a landowning farmer. My paternal grandparents have quite a few parcels of land (some of which have been transferred to my father, who is willing to pass it on to me), admittedly somewhere in the boondocks of the provinces of this country, but as any Georgian knows, landowners can sit in a corner staring at the sky, blocking the occasional land reform bill, and earn money. Complications: I have no idea about farming. I'd actually love to advocate a land value tax, which would undercut my position as a landowner.
For now, my basic current plan is some combination of #2 and #3 above: go sit in a corner of our clan's land and do freelance programming work. This keeps me with my family, may reduce my level of stress, may increase my renumeration to nearer the USA levels.
My current job has a retirement pay, and since I've worked for 12 years, I've already triggered it, and they'll give me about $16,000 or so when I leave. This seems reasonably comfortable to live on (note that this is what I take home in a year, and I've supported a family on that, remember this is a lousy third-world country).
Is my basic plan sound? I'm trying to become more optimal, which seems to me to point me away from my current job and towards either #1 or #2, with #3 as a fallback. I'd love to get cryonics and will start to convince my wife of its sensibility if I had a chance to actually get it, but that will require me either leaving the country (option #1 above) or running a cryonics company in a third-world country myself.
--
I got introduced to Less Wrong when I first read on Reddit about some weirdo who was betting he could pretend he was a computer in a box and convince someone to let him out of the box, and started lurking on Overcoming Bias. When that weirdo moved over to Less Wrong, I followed and lurked there also. So here I am ^^. I'm probably very atypical even for Less Wrong; I highly suspect I am the only Filipino here (I'll have to check the diaspora survey results in detail).
Looking back, my big mistake was being arrogant and thinking "meh, I already know programming, so I should go for a challenge, why don't I take up electronics engineering instead because I don't know about it" back when I was choosing a college course. Now I'm an IC developer. Two of my cousins (who I can beat the pants off in a programming task) went with software engineering and pull in more money than I do. Still, maybe I can correct that, even if it's over a decade late. I really need to apply more of what I learn on Less Wrong.
Some years ago I applied for a CFAR class, but couldn't afford it, sigh. Even today it's a few month's worth of salary for me. So I guess I'll just have to settle for Less Wrong and Rationality from AI to Zombies.