Last month, we held the first ever Advanced Riskology meet up here in Portland, Oregon. A lot of riskologists came out and we had some good beer and great conversations.
Thanks to everyone who attended. We’ll do it again soon.
One conversation that stuck with me was about the sharp divide there seems to be in our community between praising the risk takers of the world and demonizing the risk avoiders.
Every movement needs it’s villain, but I think we all agreed on a really important point – the world takes both types to function. Somebody (I wish I could remember who – feel free to let me know in the comments if it was you) made the analogy to the explorer and the farmer.
The Explorer
Here at AR, we’re all about the explorer. We’re intrepid souls, always in search of a new adventure. We shun the comforts of home and routine, setting off to find new places, new experiences, and new ways of life.
We wander so that we may understand more of the world, but we also need some help. We need food, and we need technology. We need maps and guides to direct us on our journeys. These are things we can’t produce ourselves when we’re constantly on the move, exploring the reaches of the world so that we can report back to everyone what it’s like and bring home ideas for new ways of life.
The Farmer
The farmer stays at home, refining his craft. He’s the mechanic, the politician, and the cultivator who butters his bread by sustaining the civilizations we build.
He keeps his people fed, fixes their broken wares, and maintains order among the masses. But competition is fierce, so he needs help finding new ideas to improve his work to stay on top. He looks to other cultures and to the explorers that understand them for new ideas that he can turn into sustainable systems.
The Intersection
The explorer creates, and the farmer sustains. Most importantly, the world requires both. They are not mortal enemies but, instead, symbiotic partners.
When I sit down to dinner, I don’t want to eat the latest thing the explorer found in the jungle, completely unaware of whether or not it could kill me. I want to eat it after the scientist has examined it and declared it isn’t poisonous. When I learn about the world, I don’t want to talk to the farmer that’s never left his own township. I want to hear from the explorer that’s seen the wonders of the globe with her own two eyes.
More than all this, I want to be, myself, both the farmer and the explorer. I want to take risks, see new things, and explore the world upon my own two feet, but I also want to take those experiences and synthesize them into a way of life that improves the world and is useful for everyone, not just myself.
The farmer depends on the explorer. The explorer depends on the farmer. We can debate who’s more important, but I don’t think it’s a useful argument because, really, we ought to strive to be both the farmer and the explorer in our own lives.
When you plow your field, wear your explorer’s cap. When you plot the wilderness, bring your pitchfork.
So how about you over there? How are you exploring and farming in your own life?
~~~~~
Image by: Jeremy M Farmer
Loved the article, but I disagree with the last statement.
When you’re exploring, better to bring a switchblade than a pitchfork.
If you’re bringing farming tools to explore, you’ll be woefully unprepared to handle the tasks that come along with exploring.
How bout this: when exploring, focus on being the best freakin’ explorer you can be. When you’re farming, be the best farmer you can be. At all times, be aware of the need & appreciative of the roles that other people are playing.
That’s my .02
I think both parts are equally as important to our society. The world has changed, and explorers aren’t going out west in search of new land. The new explorers are discovering different ways of life.
It’s the responsibility of both sides to remember their part in the bigger picture. I believe explorers should encourage anyone who is interested in exploring and be grateful to the farmers who make their life possible. Farmers should continue their work and thank the explorers for bringing their new ideas. There isn’t a competition to see who is right, the world needs the balance of both sides.
~SCott
The thing is, life is a journey. You find where you fit in, and what’s important to you, and which direction to take, and it becomes a personal evolution. The explorer, on her travels, may come across a great treasure, and stay to cultivate it, thereby becoming the farmer. I couldn’t help but think of Maggie Doyne when I was reading this: http://blinknow.org/ She went to Nepal on her Gap Year and stayed to open an orphanage, adopting 30 kids and then starting a school.
I really love the farmer/explorer analogy; it’s a great image.
Love the analogy. So many different ways to see the world.
But you’re right on, with this point. We need both. I think its a good idea if we can just watch for the experiences our life brings us, I think we can be both in some situations.
As for now I keep on exploring.
I just ignore most of I read about “exploring” or “risk taking” on blogs. Doesn’t jive my with experience.
Having taken stupendous risks in the past, I can say with assurance, let one of those risks *not* payoff, and farming looks pretty damn good. _Real_ risk isn’t a win/neutral. It’s a win big/lose big proposition. I’m not spilling my story here. Not the time, not the right place.
One other thing: the many people I personally know who have taken large “risks” may have in part succeeded as a result of having a bulletproof bunker to return to. Maybe a secure job, land, family money, whatever. The last I heard of one failure is he evidently didn’t have enough money to get back from Guatemala, and pretty much went native in the highlands, where the thriving metropolis of Huehuetenango is consider “cosmopolitan.” He didn’t have family, job, money, no “support structure.” Nothing to help get him back. Just big brass balls.
For all I know, he may be farming maize y frijoles ahora. Quien sabe.
Sometimes, you get the bear. Sometimes, the bear gets you.
Love that we both exist in the world and even within ourselves!
fascinating question and enjoy the encouragement of people having both explorer and farmer. with your statement “… but I also want to take those experiences and synthesize them into a way of life that improves the world and is useful for everyone, not just myself.”… this certainly is tied to legacy (which you’ve also written about).
to answer your question, i believe the explorer and farmer in me is my bringing of the explorer mindset to cubeopolis, e.g., my bet name for the cubicle work arena. with my previous self-employed, business owner lifestyle of 13 yrs – and decision to re-enter cubeopolis several years ago, i have the benefit of (re)learning from farmers and refining that intersection you mentioned.
thanks so much for acknowledging the benefits of both! (believe me, people think i’m crazy to be back in cubeopolis. maybe i’m just a bit of a crazy explorer – exploring cubeopolis!)
I would argue that the Farmer is just as much an explorer as the Explorer. It is the scale that is different. The Farmer is looking at everything longer and more closely. He is exploring an entire world right in front of him. The Explorer sees a field full of plants, but the Farmer sees a field full of a specific kind of wheat, a few kinds of weeds, some animals, soil, soil nutrients, soil microorganisms, water, all with their own unique, less obvious characteristics.
Most people see a picture when they look at a photograph, but the artist sees lighting, contrast, color schemes, and perspective.
What is our perspective?
Oh hurray, I thought I had to say this, but Obadiah said it for me.
My years working on a farm were no doubt the most adventures of my life. Most people have no idea what it is to work with soil, weather, insects, and plants. It isn’t for the faint hearted. It is full of scary risk and glorious exploring. I’ve never been so curious about the whole world as when I took the time to get to know a small patch of land very intimately.
Our small farmers need so much support they are not getting for keeping food on our table and healthy working land in our communities.
I think you are right, there needs to be both. And I think that we CAN be both at the same time, but I also think that we can be a farmer sometimes and an explorer sometimes. I think right now I am in the exploring stage, but my husband is a farmer. I hope that I can eventually get him to the explorer stage as well!
Great analogy!
Bernice
nice article, I think the lesson needs to be learned over and over. We were created on purpose for a purpose. Not to get to deep but if all of us were the same then a lot of us would not be necessary.
This is excellent, Tyler! I myself tend to fall into the Farmer category… I spent some time exploring different countries and careers but now find myself settling into a lifestyle where roots in a community really matter! And, I’m better at what I do when I’m doing it in the context of a community!
So many blogs focus on the Explorer as if it’s the only method of effecting change or the only way to know that you’ve truly rejected the status quo. Not true. Thank you for highlighting the importance of us “Farmers” and pointing out that it’s totally possible for a Farmer to venture into exploration from time to time
Not sure which book, but I know I read the explorer/farmer analogy in a Paulo Coelho book. Maybe that’s where you heard it too.
The problem with farmers is that they’re fond of domination and control. The agrarian revolution not only coincides with, but caused all sorts of sociocultural problems from the oppression of women to crony capitalism.
We even see a huge increase in murder just comparing immediate-return (mobile) hunter-gatherer bands to delayed-return (sedentary) hunter-gatherer bands. The emergent structures stemming from staying in one place and “cultivating” are generally mind-numbing, authoritarian, and fundamentally anti-human.
Humans evolved as explorers. Farming evolved as a conduit for violence.
All that said, I realize you’re using this analogy as a literary device to some extent.
I like the way you have characterized the difference between explorers and farmers (using a historical context). Very helpful analogy. Thanks for the reminder.
That said, I agree that the intent here was probably more literary than literal.
I pride myself on cultivating the farmer and explorer traits in my family. I refer to it as roots and wings. My home is my foundation. I take great pride in what I do here. I have created a safe, comfortable haven, where my young children enjoy routine and stability with their at home mother and their factory worker father. Our roots. And on the other hand this mild mannered family makes having wings a very high priority. We crave adventure and travel and excitement, and we get it. What my kids learn in school is just as important as what we teach them in the world. Our children have both explorers and farmers for parents. Skydive world record holder and action/adventure business owner. Factory worker and at home mom. I think that you have to give your kids roots and wings, and let them decide if they fit into one category or another, or like us…both.
This rocks!
I’m exploring beliefs, values, thoughts, and actions that have been beneficial to the people that are successful at what I want to do.
I’m farming the ones that resonate with me and provide me with results closer to the ones I am looking for.
I agree it isn’t about the debate of EXPLORER or FARMER, but more importantly how you can represent the best of both in your own two shoes. Leave the petty part to those that won’t do anything with it.
Thanks for seeing into my soul! This is something I’ve been wrestling with lately and you made it so simple! I want to explore and farm and just like there’s a place for both types there can be seasons for both in an individual life.
Absolutely the explorer. I change my mind and ideas (even if the goals stay the same) constantly. I love to learn and I think the more I learn the more things/perceptions change. I am one of those people that has to go through my tiny house and change everything as often as I can. I move my furniture around, paint, lanscape or renovate. I feel as though I’m falling behind if I’m not changing something. Stability scares me!
Important point. Which is WHY I think it’s unproductive and rude to slag off people who work for “the man.” What if these people like it? What if it makes them happy? What if there job makes other people happy? What if it’s essential to society?
Also, I need a bit of the farmer in my life. I like stability, and routine, and plans. Uncertainty is good, and I love it, but only in moderation.
A great article as far as the metaphors go – I think great in part because you recognize that we can be, ourselves, both farmer and explorer.
Not to overdo the metaphor, but the farmer/explorer may be trying out new crops, new methods of production and community-based sales, cultivating skills and environment to gain self-sufficienty, and building community – hard to do when you are a rolling stone! The farmer need not be a narrow peasant working for “the man.” And the farmer may have the winter to read and explore! I think in our world a level of innovation is the key to success and happiness.
I thought of several books I’ve read of late that readers of this blog may enjoy – “Do What You Are,” “Careers for Creative and Unconventional People”; “The Renaissance Soul,” “Refuse to Choose” that may appeal to those discovering if they are farmer, explorer, both, or something else … really insightful in designing life (not just career).
[...] We still need evangelists to speak to them and build relationships with these people. We need explorers like yourself, but we also need farmers to maintain the ground we’ve acquire…. [...]
I constantly challenge myself and my readers, but I’m also always honing my craft. In that way you could say I’m both the farmer and the explorer.
I think were currently in a world of displaced farmers. My whole life I’ve been safe, staying at home,only dreaming of taking risk. It took the death of my younger brother to wake me up to the fact the taking no risk is the biggest risk of all! Now I’ve taken a huge risk of starting a company, lanching a blog, and tackling every goal I’ve started and failed to finish (like earning a black belt and traveling) BTW except for swords, every ancent military weapon started as a farm tool, so farming is essental to becoming a good explorer!
[...] Torniamo alle reazioni che il post di Everett ha suscitato tra i minimalisti definiamoli “tradizionali”: A public message for Everett Bogue – “Minimalism is not mainstream, yet. It only seems that way [...]. We’re the fringe players. Not the majority. While I respect your mission to keep pushing forward, there are plenty more that are still caught in a high-overhead, consumerist lifestyle with no end in site. [...] We need explorers like yourself, but we also need farmers to maintain the ground we’ve acquired.” [...]
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Love it. I come (literally) from farming stock, and I know that my tendency is to put something in place then tend, tend, tend it until its *perfect*. That usually leads to a rich harvest.
But I’ve come to see that if I don’t keep exploring and stretching myself, things begin to die back. Exploring leads to stimulation leads to new life. Not to mention new contacts, with whom I can share my harvest!
Thanks for the inspiration.
[...] Let’s go back to the reactions to Everett’s post by the so called “traditional” minimalists: A public message for Everett Bogue – “Minimalism is not mainstream, yet. It only seems that way [...]. We’re the fringe players. Not the majority. While I respect your mission to keep pushing forward, there are plenty more that are still caught in a high-overhead, consumerist lifestyle with no end in site. [...] We need explorers like yourself, but we also need farmers to maintain the ground we’ve acquired.” [...]