[sambarina]

I am about to quit tech (being a programmer) in a couple of weeks. I mostly tell myself it's due to improved mental health.

I always assume that 95% of programmers have some mental disability to do what they do. Nobody with a sane mind can sit in front of a black screen with white text for 8 hours each day solving weird shit.

I started as a CS student and totally sucked at programming, wanted to quit. I finished my Bachelor and started at a StartUp. I totally loved it. I could build things they way I wanted, had a great CTO who helped me along the way.

But of course, you are getting ambitious, so you move on. Next company, higher pay, more complex problems. At some point I switched to freelancing and did 3-6 months gigs for several companies.

Now I taught myself Systems Programming, got a job at a really high paying and interesting company - so it seems.

What I figured out: No matter how high the pay was, the problems were always bigger. I quit a project early despite them paying me 20k a month and I was basically sitting my time up, nobody cared. I couldn't do it.

Now I realize, the ones who are really good at programming have some mental disability which lets them focus on this one thing for hours day in and day out. There is no way you can compete with someone further on the spectrum then you.

Then, what's the point?

You are either wanting to improve, but the better you get, the more challenging the environment. And the problems don't stop. The higher the pay, the more shit you got to eat. That's the whole point.

So you either give up, accept your situation and have a life outside of work, or you switch careers.

My problem is that I just can't seem to find the right company with the right people. Both smart, interesting but also ambitious. You either have super smart introverts who don't want to talk and socilaize, or you have fun people who can't code shit.

I had my first interview at a semi-technical role and boy this was the first time a job interview was fun. People talked, cared about how you present yourself and just didn't want to get as much money out of your mind as possible.

Programming is great, but a too big of a power for smart people not to make use of.

[ethanfinni]

How did you make the switch to Systems Programming? How did you train yourself and what technology stack I (perhaps mistakenly) would think between the front-end, back-end and devops jobs, Systems programmers are a dying breed.