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The career path you're describing is exactly what she's trying to avoid. That's what "downshifting" means.

I am all for downshifting:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36306966

I never intended to make a life long career at BigTech and was never planning on staying at Amazon for more than four years.

I was always planning on going back to smaller less stressful companies and I’m still in the process of decontenting my life.

But “coasting” in the technology field is just not realistic. Eventually as she has seen, the ground underneath you is going to change.

Coasting is entirely realistic. There are still many jobs that require knowledge that has been releatively stable, that are not stressful. And it is perfectly fine to want them id you realise pay is going to be less than you could get in other positions. You are just being an asshole.

Agree with that. Look at the rest of the world. A car mechanic, electrician, teacher or chef would need to keep up to some extent, but not to the crazy levels of tech. Using the Chef example "Yes you are cooking 1920's Chinese cuisine this week, then next week we'll chuck you on a 3 course meal for vegans that is suitable for orbital space flight"

I said “in technology”.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com