Kirsten Dirksen
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2013–2018
13:37 · 995K views · Jun 25, 2012
A short documentary about Eric Maundu's Arduino-controlled aquaponics setup in West Oakland, where contaminated soil rules out ordinary farming. Fish and circulating water grow plants without soil.
HN cites it as a neat example of urban aquaponics and as a plausible alternative path for people leaving programming.
3 comments from Hacker News
You should go talk to the guy that runs an aquaponics program near West Oakland BART. this video Dude is amazing. My mother took a really interesting Saturday class from him.
Kijani Grows based out of Oakland has been doing work in this space for several years. I recall watching this video was pretty neat.
It's called a premature midlife crisis (usually happens right before or at age 30). Some people get over it by dumping their life experience before that point completely while others, like myself, slowly wean off programming onto something else. A friend I've known since high school gave up a very lucrative career as a managing consultant to become... a farmer. Yup, he plants stuff and sells them at a bi-weekly market and keeps going in the winter thanks to his greenhouse. Currently engaged to a lovely lady and, to my surprise and delight, he's completely happy. It's a funny thing to feel like the industry you're good at (or been cornered into) is really not how you want to spend your life. And may in fact be zapping what life and vigor you have. Which is why, I've been improving my carpentry while keeping up with automation tech (Arduino, Raspberry pi, Beaglebone etc...) so when I build my smart green house and cabin, I can get down to what I really want to do. Making soap. Side note: This isn't as crazy an idea as you might think. this video