alt Hacker NewsDensity/proximity are far better incubators for innovation than people being bored and isolated on farms. Also not sure where the idea that 'freedom' is associated with farms comes from? How free are you if you must wake up at 4am and work for 12 hours to barely make a profit?
There are exceptions. They are notable for being exceptions.
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Freedom as in randomness that was allowed and available in those settings and in those times. I grew up on a farm in the 70's. Observed how mills work. I could simulate and notice a gear error in a complex machine drawing in my engineering class. The teacher had to abandon the class to think it over.
Loneliness and boredom are good ingredients as well. Some physical isolation helps with that. I lived in a neighbourhood where I was the only kid. That made me bored frequently and drove me to habits that still serve me well.
Also, constraints, survival struggle, a bit of wilderness (lack of regulatory reach), forced alertness, exposure to vast variety in the context - they are all ingredients or a green field for innovation. It's like a camping or trekking adventure every day.
The freedom of a farm is that you don't have a boss telling you what to do (if it's your own farm). It's also harder for the government to know what is going on in the middle of nowhere meaning they can't enforce the law as well.
> Density/proximity are far better incubators for innovation than people being bored and isolated on farms.
That might be the case for you.
I do all my best programming when I'm driving a tractor. When I stop, I just need to type it all in.
Or, driving my car, for that matter. I just need to get from here to way over there, it's maybe 90 miles, something like a two and a half hour drive, during which time no-one can phone me, no-one can come up and hand me something that's Clearly My Problem Because It Has An Electrical Connector, no-one can ask me what's wrong with the printer in the facilities office, and I can just sit and quietly think. I don't even have to put up with braying adverts on the local radio station.
Independently-owned farms aren't slave factories. Sometimes you'll be doing consecutive months of 13hrs/day labour, sometimes you'll have 75% of the day free, every day, for a few weeks. Guess what those with a low budget and an engineer's mind tend to get up to in their free time.
"Independently-owned farms" are the exception, these days, not the people. Every single one I've ever seen has at least one guy on there that performs miracles with PVC pipe, a TIG welder and spare bits of iron.