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Comment by skizm | Hacker News Reader

The question is though, if I know what I am doing now is not sustainable (vacations are meaningless because "pre-monday dread" hits on day 1 no matter how long I'm taking off for), but I know I'll be out in 9 years vs if I switch to something "sustainable" it will take 20-30 more years to be out: which do I pick? Lots of people say try to do something you like (sustainable), but the rub is I don't like anything that will pay me a livable wage and definitely not anything that will pay me enough to opt out of the working world at some point before I'm like 60-70. Also, I used to really like programming. Like a lot. But now I hate it because I've been forced to program stuff I don't care about all day, every day for a decade. Why would the next time be any different if I switched to a career I enjoy now?

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> Also, I used to really like programming. Like a lot. But now I hate it because I've been forced to program stuff I don't care about all day, every day for a decade.

Alternative approach: Find something that you care about and also that the business needs, and program that.

Downside is you have lots of uncomfortable conversations with your manager about how you're not doing what they said to do. You might get bad reviews, or fired, or threats of either. But you probably won't actually get fired because net positive programmers are surprisingly hard to come by.

Upside is you get to enjoy your work. Your skills grow instead of atrophying (or failing ever to develop at all). After a decade or two it's the difference between becoming a powerhouse senior IC, vs being an eternally junior programmer forced into management because you're too useless to justify a senior salary and anyway nobody trusts an old programmer who works for cheap.

For me there's only one possible choice. Autonomy, mastery, purpose, gotta have it.

This is pretty much what I used to think. If it works out for you, then great, but I think you might find its unrealistic.

I suspect that your 9 year plan is an unrealistic, best-case scenario, that won't come to pass.

Also, 9 years is a long time to survive if you're miserable. I think you may find that at some point, your employer and coworkers notice it, get sick of working with you, and replace you with someone else that really likes programming. Like a lot. But right now, not N years ago.

"I know I'll be out in 9 years."

Guessing you FIRE hard? The rule is that people in this field upgrade their lifestyle, the exception is FIRE.

FIRE?

Financial Independence/Retire Early. One forum: https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/

Travelling instagram minimalists.

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