5 Things Farmers Have Taught Me About Work, Life, and Legacy

Agrarian lessons for knowledge workers on how to live well

I'm a suburban man through and through. I was born in the suburbs, reared in the suburbs, and live in the suburbs today.

Despite this, I've long had a fascination with farming life.

I have loose connections to that world.

My grandfather had a small homestead in New Mexico, where he raised horses and grew alfalfa for hay. I've got a lot of good memories of playing in the barn and helping him bale.

I've got friends who make a living from agriculture. One friend runs a cattle business with his brothers; another sold a successful business, retired in his 40s, and created a self-sustaining homestead where he raises Dexter cattle, chickens, and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

I love visiting their operations and asking questions about them.

And when I read history books, my attention picks up when a historian gets into the nitty-gritty of farm life.

My interest in farm life partly stems from the romanticism we have about it in America. But there’s more to it than that. Over the years, I've actually come to see the farmer as the ideal role model of how to make life work as a 21st-century knowledge worker who lives in the suburbs.

Below, I share five lessons I've learned from farmers, as a person who sits at a laptop all day in his suburban home and gets his provisions from Whole Foods.