> It can certainly be internalized to the point of being "normal" and "comfortable", but still requires that focus
I would argue that there's a feedback loop in this particular case between the requirement of such effort, and the ability to generate it. The same sort of flow-state you get from e.g. playing Minecraft, also exists in the real-world equivalent of survivalist bootstrapping. Our brains were evolved to be stimulated by the survival tasks of our ancestral environments: moreso foraging and hunting than farming, but even farming still comes with very natural-to-us acts like crafting tools, clearing land, building shelter, herding animals, etc.
I think a lot of the dissonance between the modern values of convenience and efficiency/laziness, and the agricultural-era idea of a "work ethic", was simply that certain kinds of things that are "a LOT of work" just feel natural to humans, in ways where they're still work (and drudgery, at that, sometimes), but not nearly as draining to one's long-term motivation as modern "abstract" work is. Nobody ever got suffered from "burn-out" making nails to build their own house—which is amazing when you think about the level of toil involved. The sheer direct intuitiveness of the goal being pursued—make exactly enough nails to get a roof over one's head and keep out the cold—overrides a lot of the the feeling of repetitiveness of the base-level action.
(A dystopia belonging in an SMBC comic: a nail factory that used to be staffed with robots, but which is now staffed with humans wearing VR goggles having the times of their lives making nails because they believe they're doing it for direct survival reasons. Then the nails are used to build the crappy box-like apartments they pay for with their wages and go home to.)
While not a developer, I do spend more or less my entire day staring at one or more screens.
My home has a yard that needs to be completely re-landscaped, and the manual labor for that has been such a rewarding and peaceful activity for me which speaks a lot to your point.
That said, I realized while buying supplies to build a wooden raised bed this past weekend that basic things like "screwing some boards together to build a raised bed" almost seems like an overwhelming task when I first approach it. I was stunned by this because when I was a teenager I was very crafty and always tinkered with things and would have thought nothing of this.
The only thing I can think of is that in this day and age of everything being simplified to a few mouse clicks or screen taps, everything else becomes a monumental chore by comparison.
In any event, I have my parts, and now I'm excited to put them together. And I even get to indulge the digital side of me as well by modeling out my yard in SketchUp so I can make sure I like the layout before I build things.
I'd also note that something as stupid simple as "putting in a path," once you learn how to do it, is incredibly rewarding to see with the finished product. I never felt that digging dirt was stressful--just a good workout. And the end result is something that gives me a nice sense of satisfaction every time I look at it.
> The only thing I can think of is that in this day and age of everything being simplified to a few mouse clicks or screen taps, everything else becomes a monumental chore by comparison.
Or that now you know what the tradeoffs are and that there is a whole set of things you don't know you don't know! My teen self would have rather built the raised garden bed than used it, so he wouldn't have planned for long term effects (will this weather all seasons well? will these railroad ties leech into the soil and kill me via my veggies? etc)
You hit on another really important point actually. Part of why it has taken me so long to get off my butt to buy the parts has been agonizing over materials, all the different ways I can assemble it, etc. I not only have newfound respect for landscapers and carpenters, but realized that to some degree, you just need to pick an approach with the understanding you might mess things up and it isn't the end of the world. But it is very easy to fall into the "paralysis by analysis" trap.
For me it was first the debate about cedar vs. redwood vs. pine. Pine doesn't last well and the cedar options at Home Depot were pitiful so that made the choice for redwood easy. I worked out that wood screws were probably easier than rebar or railroad ties to install even if it does mean a higher risk of the thing coming apart. I can always reinforce it with metal L-brackets at the corners down the line if I need to. Since I'm going to grow veggies, I needed to make sure there was nothing toxic, so I got raw untreated wood. I may or may not stain the outside with a natural stain, but I'll start by seeing how it looks once I sand it down.
The most frustrating thing in all of this is that I can find plenty of pictures for what I want online, but most sites are crappy fluff content without handy details of parts or considerations for how to build it. Clear SEO spam plays and oh my god so many interstitials and slideshows! Instructables was actually pretty decent, but I couldn't find a style of bed I liked.
I guess I just need to do more of these projects to get more comfortable with the considerations. Like all things, practice makes perfect, and after I build this first prototype I'll decide if I want to do the same style for the others.
Next up...figuring out my soil mix and then sorting out how to convert the old irrigation system the previous owner had at the house to a drip system on a few of the heads and get that running into the beds.
Great comment. I would like to add that there is a world of difference between drudgery of tactile work and drudgery in office work.
Tactile work is more engaging and less stressful. It does not require constant multitasking or context switching. You concentrate. You also build up a certain skill at it, which allows you to feel good about what you're doing. (I.e. you go from just making nails to making good mails quickly.)
In many ways I find low-level manual tasks to feel more like "creative" office work.
The greatest flow state I ever had was building a "raft" out of small logs and lots of cord on a rest day on a backpacking trip. It took hours to gather wood of the right size, break apart the pieces that were too big, scrounge around for all the cord I could find in my gear, arrange the wood in a sensible way, and tie it all together. During all that time I was so focused on the task that I don't think an unrelated thought even entered my head.
It was completely useless: I had nothing to use the raft for, except to swim out a little farther into the lake than I could by myself. The raft didn't even work very well! And yet building it was tremendously satisfying. I can only imagine the satisfaction one might get from a task of similar complexity, but that's essential to one's survival!
I would argue that there's a feedback loop in this particular case between the requirement of such effort, and the ability to generate it. The same sort of flow-state you get from e.g. playing Minecraft, also exists in the real-world equivalent of survivalist bootstrapping. Our brains were evolved to be stimulated by the survival tasks of our ancestral environments: moreso foraging and hunting than farming, but even farming still comes with very natural-to-us acts like crafting tools, clearing land, building shelter, herding animals, etc.
I think a lot of the dissonance between the modern values of convenience and efficiency/laziness, and the agricultural-era idea of a "work ethic", was simply that certain kinds of things that are "a LOT of work" just feel natural to humans, in ways where they're still work (and drudgery, at that, sometimes), but not nearly as draining to one's long-term motivation as modern "abstract" work is. Nobody ever got suffered from "burn-out" making nails to build their own house—which is amazing when you think about the level of toil involved. The sheer direct intuitiveness of the goal being pursued—make exactly enough nails to get a roof over one's head and keep out the cold—overrides a lot of the the feeling of repetitiveness of the base-level action.
(A dystopia belonging in an SMBC comic: a nail factory that used to be staffed with robots, but which is now staffed with humans wearing VR goggles having the times of their lives making nails because they believe they're doing it for direct survival reasons. Then the nails are used to build the crappy box-like apartments they pay for with their wages and go home to.)