Entry 1 - Starting Fresh

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what comes next. I’ve been working in technology since 2011 - initially as a PC support technician and transitioning into software development in 2018.

It’s no secret that AI’s taking over the world, and that has me considering my place and purpose. Not because of a fear that AI will replace me, but because I fundamentally disagree with AI, how it’s used, likely down-stream effects, and the fact that it’s being forced down everyone’s throat as the best thing that ever happened - whether we want it or not.

Both of my grandparents had their own businesses - one a farm and the other an auto shop. It’s always been a goal of mine to follow in those footsteps and run my own company. My interests lean more toward agriculture, and I created KTech Farms in 2023 with the goal of building an urban hydroponics farm.

I’ve grown some greens and herbs to sell at the farmer’s market, but I’d categorize my efforts so far as experimental - building different types of hydroponic systems, learning how to utilize raised beds, creating proofs of concept for various software, etc. I haven’t really put much effort into building a sustainable business.

With the current state of things, I figure I have a few different options:

1. Stay a software engineer, accept that AI is happening, and be forced to use it, regardless of my opinions on the matter

2. Start my own software company and utilize AI on my own, in a manner that I find acceptable

3. Change fields entirely

Considering that you’re reading this newsletter, I feel it’s fairly obvious which option I chose. I’ll continue working as a software engineer up until the point I no longer have a choice with regard to AI. In the mean time, I’ll focus on building an urban farm (as an actual business) and use my engineering skills to build a custom platform that helps me collect and manage my data.

To kick things off, I spent time this week signing up for a newsletter platform so people who are interested can keep up with my progress. My plan is to publish weekly “journals” with what’s been accomplished over the past week.

I also decided to do a small re-brand to Serenity Valley Gardens. I registered a DBA, a new domain, and created a basic logo with Inkscape.

Finally, I created a repository for my farm management software and built some basic logic to handle contacts. Even though I’m using some third party platforms, I’m tired of other companies owning and profiting off of my data, so I’ll be taking control of that for Serenity Valley.

But what about agriculture!? Well, it’s been about a year since I grew microgreens so I planted and harvested a couple batches to dial in my “settings” again - ie the amount of seed to plant, when to harvest, the quantity harvested, etc.

For round 2, I’ll need to use less seed and make sure it’s spaced out a little better.

I think that’s good for my first entry, but if you’d like to follow along while I transition from Software Engineer to Farmer, feel free to subscribe and / or forward this to others who might be looking to make a similar change 😄 

Until next time!