I just get a feeling that no matter how privileged you are, how intelligent you are, how high or low a position you are in, or how much money you make there is going to be some random article on HN to make you feel insecure.
It isn't one of those "in six weeks I turned my side gig into a Nobel-prize winning web site and now I'm a billionaire" clickbait articles.
The article has a good message, but the title is absolute click-bait. Many people might come across the title, and although not interested in reading it, walk away with the idea that following dreams leads to negative consequences. I hope the author changes it.
This person was not a developer previously, so I don't understand how they were "demoted." Other than management > individual contributor.
What really happened was they changed jobs to do something they found more fulfilling. Which is great, but if I decided to change careers to building furniture, I wouldn't say I "got demoted to making furniture."
In nearly every organization that would be a huge demotion WITH a huge pay cut. In this instance because coders are paid so much more than most other professions it’s possible it was a lateral move or even a pay raise! But no question as far as responsibility for the direction of the organization it’s a huge demotion.
As someone who has worked at a variety of companies - this isn't true. It's just a title. I've seen plenty of "director of X" with no direct reports. I don't know how big Stack Overflow's design department is but with only 300 people in the company - I can't imagine it being massive enough to warrant a typical director title you'd see at some truly big corps where a director has 50+ people under them.
I don’t know what one calls the director of directors, though.
Not seeing the connection with that and feeling inferior. I agree with your point, just still can't figure out the top level comment.
Life is full of tradeoffs though sometimes they are easy and that's wonderful ("doing X isn't worth the money to me" or "I don't really like doing Y but I don't mind because the extra money will allow me to Z"). Some people couldn't care less about titles (e.g. me) while some people think they are even more important than pay (e.g. my mum who grew up in such a culture). I can't claim either is bad or wrong; people just have different itches to scratch.
The "choices" we should worry about are those forced upon people who don't actually have a choice ("I have to drag myself to my second minimum wage job because otherwise I'll be homeless").
It’s not a demotion in the same way that voluntarily deciding on a career change from IC to management is not a promotion. A promotion is given to someone, not chosen by them.
"I followed my dreams, left management, and love being a coder again" might be more on target.
Demotion has a very negative connotation.
Well, it is a demotion, though: "reduction in rank or status".
And it's interesting here exactly because it was by choice.
It didn't come out of thin air, as this person had been coding as a hobby for a few years (Ludum Dare rocks!). So she actually did have some skills, though maybe not as formal or structured as say, a tech recruiter, might want to.
Furthermore, it's great that she is working in an organisation that would support such a change. It makes this career change much easier than having to quit your job and trying to get gigs or get hired without having formal credentials or experience.
Sometimes we by nature map self-worth to title... don't do it! At this point in my career, I'm a senior director, accountable for nine figures of turnover annually and driving things that truly matter and are meaningful to me. I'm reasonably good at what I do, and am blessed to have an incredible team. But, if I could make the money work and not have to relocate, I'd happily be a staff engineer again. I miss the technical problem solving (ie. learning alot about a thing vs. learning a little about 100 things), the small team and mentoring new people.
I'm not grousing, it's just a different set of things, but I think that I would miss the "perks" of what I do now less. It also makes an impression on me that for a brief window, technical "stuff" made me a rockstar to my nieces and nephews 10-15 years ago. Now, my 9 year old eyerolls at my "conference call commando" skills.
There are other ways to look at the world. In some ways they can be both more and less stressful than contemporary western ideology.
If you want to go all the way to Eastern Philosophy, you can, but even without going into that, there comes a point where contingency planning is more fruitful than doubling down on trying to force a thing to happen no matter what.
Memento mori (remember you will die) as the Stoics say.
Certainty is an illusion, one that romantic partners and anxious bosses in particular don't want to hear about. Great insight for a smoke jumper, not so good for valentine's day or SLA violations.