M&Ms: Hunter-Gatherer Update

calendars, crops, and choices

One of the most interesting people I have come across recently is Professor Jiang Xueqin.

In one of his videos he says that wheat domesticated humans and not the other way around.

He goes on to say that the great farming revolution of 10,000 years ago, where humans stopped being hunter-gatherers and settled to cultivate land, was actually a terrible deal for humans and a great win for wheat.

Prior to settling down to farm wheat, humans had rich diverse diets and food sources all around. Afterwards, not so much. Populations exploded, humans needed far more children to cultivate their land. And in turn needed even more wheat to sustain those populations. Hunter-gatherers had better teeth because wheat grinds down your teeth. They had far less disease because early farming conditions were terrible, living next to pigs, mud, and bacteria.

But perhaps the biggest shift is that early farmers had to put in incredibly long hours on the farm.

But the wheat got taken care of, got watered, got re-planted every year by humans.

He adds “to this day, we cannot tell you, or give you a good reason, why early humans made the flip from hunter-gatherers to farmers.” He says every guess so far is wrong.

Well, I think I can tell you why humans made the flip.

You see I am convinced we humans will trade away a lot of things for a little bit of certainty. Many humans will trade away most of their time, some will trade away their relationships, their health, their freedom, just so they can be a little more certain about where the food will come from next year.

Modern full-time work arrangements aren't too different from that early deal we made with wheat crops.

That’s because modern work arrangements with many companies tend to be long hours, and not just any hours, it has to be the hours they want, maybe the very best hours of your day. 9-9-6 if you are unlucky, but 9 to 5, at least. And in most cases the work has to be away from your family, in an office. They will make you sign things that say they own everything you produce. They’ll muzzle you under threat of firing if you say the wrong thing outside of work, at least the wheat never did that. And even if that work arrangement is not great for your health, sitting down all day, nobody cares.

Do you want that bread or not?

For that little bit of certainty, look how much we give up.

I’ve been there, I know all about it. I was an early employee at a startup when my first two kids were born. As an example of what's expected, I had to jump in and fix a production issue while my wife was on the hospital bed about to give birth. I stayed home after my first baby for about a week and then it was back to 12-hour days on the wheat plantation.

Look, don’t misunderstand this, I'm not shitting on work. We gotta work, we gotta eat. And good work gives our life lots of meaning. My family has a lot today because I worked like a dog back in those days. But there has to be a better way. And look even that story about jumping on a production incident at the hospital, I was a hero to my colleagues for doing that work back then, and it makes for a good story now, so I don’t regret it.

But my bigger point is we gotta work smart, not just hard. And it’s hard for me to say that the modern full-time work arrangement is the best deal you can get.

Because I’d wager good money that if you are willing to forgo some salary, and a bit of certainty (this is the hard part!), you can probably earn close to 80% of what you’d make working for a big company on your own. With a much more flexible work arrangement. And while having lots of personal freedom.

It’s the way I’ve been living the last few years. Prior to taking the plunge to be an entrepreneur, self employed, hunter-gatherer, whatever you want to call it, I might not have believed it either. I still can't believe it honestly. But somehow it's been working out.

Indie Hackers recently ran an interview summarizing my last few years on this journey, you may find it interesting, if you’ve ever thought about this.

One of the benefits of making a living this way is that my third kid was born this year and I’ve been around the entire first six months so far. This has been an incredibly rewarding time to spend with him.

But don’t misunderstand, I'm still working. I'm still building stuff. And for sure the downside is I make less money than I used to, and maybe it's a little less certain.

But now I work a few hours in the day, a few hours at night, on my own schedule. But they are good hours on stuff I want to work on, and with people I want to work with.

One of the things I am working on right now is helping the Act Two team (the folks who built Write of Passage) by teaching a Vibe Coding track for beginners in their upcoming five-week live program.

But Act Two isn’t just Vibe Coding, although that’s my favorite lane. So far, people have already joined to start a podcast, launch a YouTube channel, write a book. A lot of creative projects getting built out. It’s less about lessons and more about building the thing: accountability, feedback, & community so you actually ship in those 5 weeks.

Obligatory sales pitch, but if you are interested: the 5 week live program starts Wednesday this week and it would be good to have you.

By the way, even if you can’t join Act Two because of timing or whatever, I put together this recording of a recent workshop I ran that walks a beginner through installing Claude Code, building a first app, and deploying it. It should help even if you’re non-technical.

But to go back to Professor Jiang for a few more seconds, if he’s right and wheat domesticated us, then wheat is like one of the first startups to find product-market fit and onboarded humanity as its labor force. The modern full-time paycheck is just the enterprise contract version of that deal. Guaranteed calories in exchange for root access to your calendar, and your best hours, and everything you make.

My tiny rebellion is simple: trade a little certainty for a lot of life, more learning curves, more shipping, more ownership, and the ability to wander off for baby giggles.

If you’re feeling farmed, maybe you should try a season of hunting (projects, not mammoths!). Worst case you come back with good stories and better teeth.

---

Thanks for reading.

—Louie