Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do?
If you were to quit your developer job today and move away from the tech world for a little while, what job would you do?
If I'm tasked with something, it may take me a day or it may take me a week depending on how well I can think my way to a solution. Maybe it never comes, maybe I'm spending days searching the same SO answers for a morsel of insight or inspiration from poorly written documentation to solve a problem. Drinking coffee, staying up late, maybe it bleeds into personal life, that urge to keep looking into it to finally put an end to the task and deep dizsatisfaction.
I'm often jealous of people in other jobs that aren't this way, that are more "just hustle and do it," where at the end if the day, you either did the work to progress your position/project/whatever, or you didn't. And if you just got up in the morning and physically and metaphorically "showed up" for the job, there was a far lesser chance you'd just stare a screen to no discernable result for 8 hours and feel a sense that no progress was made.
He found it a fantastic experience. He claimed that there is more overlap between the skills needed between the two than you'd think (and that he met a surprising number of other truckers who used to be software engineers).
If I decided to change careers, I'd seriously investigate that.
This guy drove trucks for three years. I think his assessment of his experience is not based on an illusion.
He also wasn't saying it was better than software development. He was burnt out in the software world and drove trucks simply to do something that wasn't that. After a few years of truck driving, he returned to the software world, which is what he is still doing today, and speaks positively of both that and truck driving.
And if a pilot falls asleep the entire plane falls down, when a surgeon falls asleep someone dies under the knife.
I am not good at fiction writing at all. But this is something I always romanticize about. Something about sitting in cafes or home and typing away seems like a perfect day to me. No need to debug, troubleshoot production issues, attend meetings, submit TPS reports, etc. Just you and your writing.
The other thing you could do is to join a writers workshop, in person is always good but there's no reason why you couldn't join some remote thing. The caveat is that however big the workshop is you need to read everyone else's work and comment on it as well, which means if you have a workshop with four people you typically will need to read something for 4x for every one of your submissions.
The other thing to consider is whether you want to write fiction that is necessarily entertaining or literature that is compelling. Those are two entirely different disciplines.
Then simply write a single page every single day no matter what.
The other thing you just need to do is read the masters. Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Try to find an example of some compelling fiction for yourself, something that moves you. then try to find some cliff notes or a summary regarding that's story's plot. The information is there, but the emotional reaction, the thing that moves you is missing from the summary.
There is a story called "Litost" by Milan Kindera, that in my opinion does a very good job of explaining this without breaking the mood of the story through boring exposition. At its heart the story is simply about a youth in an affair with an older woman and unrequited love. But real compelling fiction is not just the story.
It comes from a word without English equivalent. Litost is a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery”
Try to find a copy of the story and read it. I looked for a link but couldn't find anything. Try to avoid reading literary criticism initially.
Hard part is actually writing everyday though. After day job and social responsibilities, I have barely anytime. Then I recently got real estate license.
The times I have done such work (like construction) resulted in a much greater satisfaction and feeling in my body than after a day in front of the screen (even though I have been productive). Doing lots of running and gym but it does not generate the same feeling.
Have lately started to do something about it, maybe switch career totally.
There is opportunity help others understand and express the feelings of why they suffer, instead of acting out in indirect/critical, dysfunctional ways, which compounds the problems. That is just benefits that can be attained at ground floor.
Please check out Attachment Theory and Schema Therapy: http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/online/inge_orig..., https://www.guilford.com/excerpts/young.pdf
- History professor: Because history rocks.
Aside: Montemayor, an independent history documentary maker, has a documentary on The Battle of Midway at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd8_vO5zrjo. If you would like to support his work he has a Paypal on his channel page!
- Flipping houses: Upgrade carpentry from tech level 0 to tech level 3 and get property + credit line
I’d become a farmer.
I love growing plants. I love being outside. I love being away from electronics. It’s perfect for me. If only it paid more... (but I’m working on that, in 2-3 years I hope to be able to make the transition to full-time farmer)
You cannot imagine how much I hate myself for dealing with technology...
Right now I'm in a very difficult situation where I don't know what to do. I cannot find anything that does not ask for previous experience; and the irony is that I don't know anything else apart from technology which I started hating the last 4 years.
edit: obviously my impostor syndrome kicks in lately due to countless factors and I self-sabotage with every interview out there lol. I just want to go back in time and slap me in the face for choosing this career -_- I don't want to spend the rest of my life in front of a screen.
I too want to switch career and do something else, completely different than technology and as many of you mentioned, I want to deal with handcrafting, anything that falls under the "art" category, really.
In my opinion, my mind and body tells me that 80% physical activity and 20% mental / intellectual is the best combination.
That's my ideal concept I believe.
Recently, I moved from the Bay Area to midwest city where family and some friends live, and have a 3 week old.
I plan to build a homestead in the coming years, transitioning from an office job to working on the land -- building/developing land, growing food and living a simpler, if perhaps more strenuous lifestyle.
Also considering doing some freelance work which although still coding will involve some sales/contract negotiation type stuff and the chance to charge more (I’ll keep my job so it’s easy to say no to low ballers!)
You North American coders would say 150/h is meh for freelance work but if I could get that in my spare time it’d be pretty cool.
I love being a software engineer but I would love it more if I didn't have to rely on it for paying living expenses.
Also, it would be great to have flexibility in work, and ability to be more outside. I find it so unnatural and sad that we have to sit on our arses and look at monitors locked within 4 walls for our best healthiest years. I slightly suffer internally every time, when the weather is great outside.
Being a good hacker really helps with creative processes.
Have been learning a lot of sailing and boats from YouTube. Want to give it a try.
I feel like I'm too unplugged from nature.