> I want to spend my days being a gentleman scientist and a student of the arts. I want my best work to follow my morning tea in the garden, and I want to join a Society of Likeminded Nerds to talk about it.

Atop a healthy and happy family, this is all I want from life. I would be honored to apply for membership at your Society if and when you ever start it.

> I want to join a Society of Likeminded Nerds to talk about it.

>> I would be honored to apply for membership at your Society if and when you ever start it.

I'd argue this already exists. We're on it right now...

I think HN overlaps a lot with what I imagine from OP's description. I personally would want more content along the lines of showing what random projects people are working on and far less focus on the companies that a particular VC firm happens to back.

> I personally would want more content along the lines of showing what random projects people are working on

YES. Anyone know of a good place for this?

hackaday is like this, but with an electronics focus rather than software

Lobste.rs does this occasionally, which can be interesting.

Yup, this is exactly what brings me to HN day after day.

I was thinking of meetup groups when writing that line. Some of them are practically adult show and tell.

Almost everytime I have a three day weekend I find that third day so enjoyable. My life feels better overall and it carries into the week. Literally having one more day off per week changes my mood drastically. I'm prioritizing a four day work week whenever I look for my next job because of this.

Ironically, the rise of the US as an economic power probably was what ended the Victorian dream of noble men doing nothing but looking for ever more refined expressions of art and culture. Huysmans wrote about it in his still very relevant novel "À rebours".

What about the Victorian period made this possible? Seems strange that we have so much more wealth and efficiencies now (even just refrigeration/freezers as one example) yet seem to have gone backwards in this regard. What could be the underlying cause of this?

The few people with the wealth to be able to live this lifestyle are the ones who left enough records to read about. The commoners definitely existed, they just didn't leave records, or the ones they did leave weren't preserved, or the ones that were, common folk don't study or read about. That's all.

In another 1,000 years, think about who around you right now might have the chance to be remembered. Someone like Bezos or Musk? Those reading about our life in the year 3,022 might believe everyone in our time was a wealthy CEO funding rocketship companies if they go by the names that have stood through time.

It was only possible in the Victorian period for the wealthy elite. If you were born into a family that owned vast swaths of land or used to run slave plantations in the Caribbean you were set for life and could devote your life to less crude pursuits than the gain of capital. You would also have a ready built network of others with similar wealth and social expectations.

And not only in England - all of Europe's elite, in France, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Russia, spend their days sponsoring art and partying, basically. They were the ones paying all the famous composers, painters, etc. whose work we still marvel at today. The rise of the United States and its capitalist system brought an end to that. The businessman rose over the noble man, both in wealth as well as image.

Not the businessman, really; the _normal_ man. If we were back in the Victorian age, it's likely that you and I would be doomed to labor every day for meager sustenance, supporting the occasional noble and their leisure.

Just have to reply to this, so I can find your comment in my own comments. We'll put and I am trying to love like this for myself. Thx

You can also click on the timestamp of the HN comment (e.g. ‘1 hour ago’) and then click ‘favorite’. That will save the comment (publicly) to your profile.

Looking at your profile it doesn’t look like you have any favorites saved yet, so maybe you’re not familiar with that feature?

I'm not OP - but didn't know about "favorite" and thanks!