As we argue over which of the software engineers in this thread knows more about farming, are we totally sure that statement isn't, at least in some sense, a joke?
My immediate first assumption was "he's retired from doing this and this statement is a reference to doing something very much not IT related, like goat herding or farming." I haven't moved from that assumption yet. :D
I mean yea, I read this as an idiom for "went to do something wholly unrelated to programming". Not as "I literally am going to begin farming". Like I would read anything from "restaurant owner" and "artist" to "flight trainer" and "corporate DJ" as all fitting under that.
everything is literal in programming communities, lmao.