Ask HN: Did quitting tech lead to a good or bad outcome for you? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Did quitting tech lead to a good or bad outcome for you?

4 pointsnot_my_real_16 comments

I'm absolutely, completely, totally burnt out on the entire tech industry. I've tried switching jobs, switching companies, and taking time off between. Today is my one year anniversary with my current company, and I can think of nothing except quitting.

But when I look at tech job boards, nothing excites me anymore enough to even apply. I like solving technical problems, but that's about the extent of my interest in the tech sector anymore. I hate modern software development methodologies and their rituals. I literally have a gag reflex at the thought of attending more meetings. Almost everything that I see big tech touch I see it making worse, and small tech seems to exist primarily to support big tech while trying to emulate it. I just can't do this industry anymore.

Did you quit? What did you do next? Were you happy with the outcome, or disappointed by it? I grew up in poverty, so my biggest fear is the loss of income, so I need to find some assurance to myself that I can find something I like better than tech that at least makes enough to pay the bills.

I have similar feelings about tech job boards and politely decline any offers I get from recruiters. My job is technically interesting, but not meaningful. Pays enough to take the money issue off the table.

I would not quit tech altogether, but strive to teach/coach/mentor someone (tech or not), while working at a small shop that does not rely on venture capital. I find smaller companies more fun and I'm happy to have escaped from the golden cage of a large corporate before. Same for working at a small startup, fighting for a profitable exit.

My advice: find a nice boss and nice colleagues, be loyal and make sure you have agency over how stuff is done. And watch over your boss so she doesn't get replaced by a brain dead manager while your company grows.

You have to do something in developing countries , certainly for them, but also for you.

People have the deep need to feel that their actions have consequential outcomes for themselves and others.

With the centralization of food , water and energy production no such feedback exists anymore

It’s time to go back to Mama Africa.

I am personally burned out too and am considering starting an aerial firefighting company.

Some of the birds are really cheap if you have the guts to fly them and they double as crop planes, plus a certain structure exists to finance their purchase so you don’t have to put up too much capital

How about going into something education related? Not necessarily to go to work in school or at university but to teach/coach someone.

Tech is sort of like a Penrose Stairs[0]. You level up your skills, then the whole industry levels up too, and you need to upskill yet again, and this keeps happening until inevitable burnout.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs

I often dream of buying a farm, but I'm certain I would be very bad at farming. I can barely grow a house plant

I live in an old well established rural area - a great many farmers here lease land to farm, depending on crops, seasons, all manner of things.

I've got a chunk of land so I could build the house and sheds I wanted with the views I wanted and lease out the bulk of the land to cover rates, costs and turn a small profit - I'm on good tems with the leasee who has their own land they own (and farm) and other leases.

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