Hey so our tribe used its calorie surplus to send us to kill you. Goodbye.
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2026
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"hey so, what if instead of walking around all the time to find plants to eat, we just make those plants grow near our houses so we don't have to walk?"
Or, this plant grows really well here. Let's plant more and pop a house down too.
The house most likely came afterwards.
Yeah, I imagine they planted a bunch of stuff and realised that standing around in the rain kinda sucks so maybe having a spot to sleep next to the plants would be nice
Farming started with simply harvesting of naturally occurring plants and then planting more of them around same areas. One theory is that when climate changed the plants stopped naturally occurring near good settlements (for example near a river) and people started purposefully cultivating and selectively breeding them. The weird part is that after settling and literally shitting where they ate life expectancy of people dropped by around 10 years. The theory is that food availability was less stable for hunter-gatherers. During good years everything was fine but when game became scarce they starved. Farming offered more stable access to food at the cost of more diseases and shorter life expectancy. It was also able to support larger populations. And everything went downhill from there.
Yeah, there's definitely an upper limit to the growth of hunter-gatherers á la the classic 'wolf overpopulation' example. That being said... Agriculture...
The nice thing with plants is they don't run away when you try to kill them with a pointy stick.
They also dont fight back and kill you...
Thorns
Just make some traps and catch crabs or lobster. No effort required.
What if I want to live somewhere that doesn't flood all the time?
Don't build your house in the intertidal zone?
One big rain and you are still flooded.
And yet my house has never flooded despite being only slightly above sea level...
"I wonder how they pitched farming 10,000 years ago. The only thing it had going for it was that it was more food and more consistent food, and that you could even do it at the same time as hunting and gathering."
farming.....AND hunting and gathering? lmao now you're dreaming
Get a load of this guy! The load being a box filled with vegetables fruits and meat, that is.
Damn, they were even pushing the food pyramid back then?
Interesting enough, some hunter-gatherer groups actually engage in 'farming' of a sort when traveling between well-known areas - planting seeds to be harvested later. The difference is in intensity. One supposes after a few lean years where the game is scarce and the surrounding lands occupied by rivals, the notion of planting en masse may not look so crazy...
There is a youtube channel called "The Prehistory Guys" and it is two old archeologists.
They show that archeologists have found evidence at Gobekli Tepe of per house storage of wild, pre-domesticated grains that grew around the settlement/ city.
Also the first nations of North America have a several instances of pseudo-farming. E.G Various groups in coastal BC kept groves of Garry Oak to encourage deer and elk to frequent specific locations. And we know that the people around the island of Manhattan similarly manipulated the flora of the island to attract prey species to hunt them there.
Home ec, back in my day, was silly. The entire two years revolved around redundant sewing of crap that was kit based that no one wants and “cooking”. Redundant “cooking” that could be as basic as taco dip. I learned nothing about cooking in that class, that all came later.
Teach how to roast veggies on a half sheet. How to deal with eggs or meat in an iron skillet. Basics. Teach about salt.
Teach how to grow seedlings. Then how to temper them for outside planting.
Teach how to do basic home maintenance. How to change a door knob. A door slab. Cut and replace a baseboard, both by hand and with a miter or circular saw. Maybe build a shelf. How to find a stud in a wall and why this may be necessary. Caulk and about different types of caulk. The difference between drywall screws and other screws. How to clean a lint trap in a dryer and why you need to do so. How to change the sink traps.
How to change a tire. Go to the spare then back again. Change oil. Change wiper blades. Change both air filters.
Teach how credit works.
How to fill out a POA for healthcare at 18. Why it’s important. How to remove your parents access to all your accounts, if you wish.
How to get a library card. What in person services are available via library. It’s more than you think.
And yes. How to thread a basic sewing machine and sew a seam. How to sew on a button.
Schools have woodshop and metal shop, some even have auto mechanic classes if that's what they want to do.
As a general curriculum though? Good luck getting a room full of teenagers to care about doorknob repair.
Why would you need to learn how to change a doorknob when that varies quite a bit per model? How would you teach changing a tire in a classroom, and why bother when cars don't come with spares anymore (also, how many flats do you get? I've literally had a single one in nearly 20 years). Changing the oil varies hugely per model too.
I do agree that basic skills are important. Teach them how a drill or a saw works just so that they're not scared of using one. Teach them how to change a lightbulb or do some basic wiring. How to cut and bake vegetables.
But all those specific things that they won't use for a decade? Nah, highschool is for foundational learning. If you understand a drill and a screwdriver, you can swap a doorknob yourself.
I think the reason to teach something like changing a doorknob isn't really because they're going to need that specific skill. I'd consider teaching it because it's an easy demonstration that taking things apart to fix or change them isn't necessarily a scary thing to do. I bet a lot of people with some minor problem to fix in their home wouldn't be able to do it, not because they can't use a screwdriver but because their instinct is that they are supposed to get an expert to do it.
That makes a lot of sense to me. I really enjoyed my Computing classes in high school, and I've never used the specific programming language since. Was still very useful because it taught me how to think about programming problems.
You can very easily teach how to change a tire at school. Assuming the school has a parking lot, you just walk out there where you have literally any car parked. Then you change the tire. Even in an urban setting, this is quite easy by simply walking to the nearest location where you can park a car, and practicing on a car that the teacher has parked there earlier in the day. Changing a tire is an extremely simple skill that could be taught in a single class period, but many motorists lack it and end up stranded on the side of the road because of their lack of knowledge. If they break down in a convenient location, this may simply cost them time and money as they wait for someone to come along and do this task for them. But if they are in an isolated location - say, on a remote road in the mountains during a blizzard - this knowledge could save their lives.
why bother when cars don’t come with spares anymore
how many flats do you get?
Are stupid? You get CPR trained not because you expect someone to need CPR every day, but because you want to be prepared in case you ever need to do CPR. If your car doesn't come with a spare, go buy a spare. Don't get fucked over just because auto manufacturers are cheap bastards.
Changing the oil varies hugely per model too.
Why would you need to learn how to change a doorknob when that varies quite a bit per model?
This is not true, like... at all. There are some minor differences with, say bolt sizes, oil filter types, existance of retainer clips, etc. But the process of changing the oil in a passenger vehicle is pretty universal. Same with doorknobs. I'm sure there are some weirder varieties - but every doorknob I've replaced follows exactly the same process. Slide the bolt in, put the knob turny-boi in the bolt, finagle the machine screws into position to connect inner and outer knobs, tighten machine screws and the screws that hold the bolt plate into the door.
None of this is rocket science, but as the other poster said, most people's issue is simply the first step of believing that they can successfully complete a repair or maintenance task themselves. There is nothing special about replacing a doorknob, but it is a simple and useful demonstration assignment that can get kids comfortable with actually using tools and taking things apart, and that is an extremely useful life skill.
the bread in his burgers must either be made of meat or petroleum
Capitalism requires you to be dependent on the system