Andy McIlwain @ andymci.com

10,000 years ago, civilization forked. Farming was invented and the way many people spent their time was changed forever.

Clearly, farming is a very different activity from hunting. Farmers spend time sweating the details, worrying about the weather, making smart choices about seeds and breeding and working hard to avoid a bad crop. Hunters, on the other hand, have long periods of distracted noticing interrupted by brief moments of frenzied panic.

It’s not crazy to imagine that some people are better at one activity than another. There might even be a gulf between people who are good at each of the two skills. Thom Hartmann has written extensively on this. He points out that medicating kids who might be better at hunting so that they can sit quietly in a school designed to teach farming doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

A kid who has innate hunting skills is easily distracted, because noticing small movements in the brush is exactly what you’d need to do if you were hunting. Scan and scan and pounce. That same kid is able to drop everything and focus like a laser–for a while–if it’s urgent. The farming kid, on the other hand, is particularly good at tilling the fields of endless homework problems, each a bit like the other. Just don’t ask him to change gears instantly.

I’m not sure where I stand. Am I a farmer? A hunter?

My day-to-day consists of a lot of information consumption. I read, I share, I think, I write. It’s fairly passive, and does include a lot of “distraction”. But when projects arise, I drop everything and plow through what needs to get done. Does that make me a hunter?

I still feel like I need guidance, though. A mentor. Someone to help me distinguish between the right and wrong in various situations; stability and advice and consistency. It’s as if I’m still seeking the routine and task-oriented details of a classroom setting. So does that make me a farmer?