There is no back story here, but just curious of you who actually started off as an engineer and decided to switch early, mid or late career. What are you up to now? Why did you switch? How are you liking it?
Not a switch per se, because I still work on IT related stuff, but I started a bakery and a retail store (two separate businesses).
I hired a chef and a manager to do the work professionally, and I pay for wages, rent, material, etc. But I get to learn the immense efforts it takes for a brownie to be on a table, for a cake to bring a smile to face, and a cheesecake to melt in the mouth. It was a fresh experience, and I really like the change of pace it brought. We have been experimenting with waffles, brownie flavors, cheese cakes, etc. It feels like buying a new domain every day!
Interesting, have you leveraged your tech background to help the business?
I'm in a similar spot--my wife bought a retail business (gift shop + dress boutique) with her sister around 2018. My tech background made some things easier, like modernizing how they operate (bluetooth scanners, iPads, inventory management vs. the old clunky stuff that was in place).
Retail is a hard way to make a dollar, but very interesting -- I manage the business's finances and bought the commercial building they operate out of (and rent it to their business at a loss), so I've been learning a lot. For context, the business has grown ~30% YoY the last few years. But to continue growth I think we'll need to expand business online (90%+ of sales are in person).
"Sell online" seems harder and harder these days due to the competition--building to thrive in brick and mortar is different than online. During COVID they started weekly Facebook live shows which do well, but the audience is mostly local.
Since it is a brick and mortar businesses they already have processes for inventory, etc. in place with thousands of SKU's and are next door to the local post office, so I think there are some opportunities to leverage that into unique business opportunities. For example, they are a gift shop and specialize in helping people find gifts. What if they turned that into a service where people submit who they need a gift for + their budget and the store sends a gift to the person?
If I ever take a few months off I'd probably spend time thinking about how to leverage the unique advantages of old-school brick and mortar businesses like this.
I worked full time as a software dev from about 1999 until 2010. It was never really all that fulfilling for me, although I was pretty good at what I did. I was laid off in 2010, and spent the rest of the year milking goats and sheep, and making cheese in France and the UK. When I returned home in late 2010, my wife and I moved to a more rural location, bought a small herd of goats, and started building a cheese plant.
We've been making cheese going on 8 years now, and have expanded into sheep and cow's milk production, in addition to our goat's milk varieties. Unlike most of the cheese producers around us, we focus on raw milk cheeses with natural rinds. Many of our varieties are inspired by cheese I encountered while working in Europe.
Here's a small gallery of some of our cheeses: https://imgur.com/a/zg0eaTz
We're just emerging from our kidding season and heading into lambing. It's the most challenging period of the year, as we'll have 150+ kids and lambs arrive over a couple of weeks.
https://imgur.com/a/USmPghf
The shift has been fulfilling overall, and I still do work on some tech related projects which has been great. I have to some degree begrudgingly watched my peers' income shoot up dramatically over the last 12 years, while I have to work twice as hard to bring home the same amount.
Overall though, it's been net positive for my family, and while I've tried to quit farming at least half a dozen times, I was never able to bring myself to make the break.
Right now I'm in training for ordained ministry in a Christian denomination. I came back into regular church worship a few years ago, and then started studying theology through my diocese and found I loved it. Now I'm close to completing a Masters of Divinity at university, and I'm in my third year of training at theological college.
Software skills have been much more useful to all of this than you might think. In the church the idea of 'calling' has a particular prominence; sort of doing those things that you find rewarding, that you have the skills and aptitude for, and that also help others – God is seen to be in all of that, too.
It took a while but at a certain point I just realised that while I'm really good at software, it's not the other two things for me. It's a funny thing to let it go, slowly, and if I am ordained I think it'll be my equivalent of playing with train sets in the garage.
I guess what I'd take from all of this is that even in a secular sense, we're always learning about ourselves, and it's never too late to be brave and explore something new.
Moved to renewables. Wanted to try and help with climate change and needed new challenges.
Solar is a fantastic industry. Lots of room for improvement feels like internet did in thr mid 90s. Just a ton of enthusiasm and a sense you're part of something big and important.
Walked away from 20 years of software development last year. I've been day and swing trading stocks for last 2 years. I'm now trading full time and doing great. I don't miss the daily stand-ups, scrum meetings, planning meetings, "quick chats", one-on-ones with management, weekly department meetings, monthly company meetings, and late night critical support calls one bit!
Here’s the thing. If I could just code without being a slave to a scrum master or being product micromanaged.. I would never leave the industry. I worked five years in mobile gaming when the Apple Store first opened. Released 13 titles, had my hands in a half a dozen others, three teams in two countries, 15 employees at our height (95% remote). Never had a standup, planning meaning, grooming.. etc.
Good luck to you! I remember back in the late 90's / early 2000's when The Stock Market Only Goes Up, and 1/4 of my software peers quit to "become day traders." Well when the bear market inevitably came, I started seeing them back in scrum meetings... Do your due diligence and and preserve your capital :)
I've been exploring day trading recently and have not yet found the angle that works for me and also fits my lifestyle/budget. It's hard to find reliable sources of education on the topic because it seems like so many materials are teaching hindsight technical analysis that looks good on paper but is really just BS to sell a e-book or Discord subscription. I'm still exploring what time frames I want to trade and if I should go with option strategies or stock scalping. Do you have any advice for learning materials?
That's brave, given the odds. Having gotten into options recently myself, I'm curious if there was some research or reading materials that you found particularly helpful in your ramp up to trading full time. Also do you try to close out every position by close of business each day or is there a longer term approach?
I'll never forget the great crash of 2000. Among the signs I should have seen-- I knew a guy from my bowling league who quit his job to day trade. I don't know what your qualifications are for this line of work, but this guy had no discernible skills. He was doing fine 'till the big crash, then he was wiped out.
What would you need to get into day trading, properly, as a full time job? I'm certain that bank defaulter lists are filled with mediocre day traders, so without asking what's your secret, what's your secret?
Sad to hear that top minds just give up on humanity and accept money as a goal by itself.
I do have long term investments (5 nanometers, extreme litography, electric vehicles... just what I love), I make money, but is not something I need to live.
Last month, when war started I told my team, Aerovironment stock, is gonna double (war drones) but I'm not gonna be part and I want you all to feel how calmed I'm about that and undertand (I don't need those 100k).
I now undertand the difference between being Socrates or a 'sofist' (greek philosophs both, one for pleasure, the second as a job).
Investing shouldn't be a need, is what's best for humanity. I think Elon musk already refered this way
I'm not sure if you're looking for stories of moving away from tech, software, or just development, but I did the latter.
I started as a web developer, but I realized that my favorite part of the job wasn't building new pages/apps but helping my colleagues when they ran into roadblocks. I got a reputation as a problem-solver and people would come to me with their thorniest bugs or browser compatibility issues and I loved it - the detective work of investigating and diagnosing the issues, the creative solutions to work around browser limitations, and the satisfaction of helping people achieve their goals.
Then I met a product support engineer at my friend's startup and heard about that role, and realized it was an entire job made of what I loved most about my previous jobs. I joined the team and was on it for years, and have been working in technical support for software products ever since (about twelve years now). I still build websites as a hobby, but I wouldn't want to do it for a job anymore. I'm very happy in product support.
This is my favorite part of the job too - digging through weird, ancient spaghetti code and finding obscure bugs. Then either crafting a fix to the code, or creating some kind of migration path or workaround to mitigate the problem. Unfortunately in a lot of companies this kind of "maintenance mode" job is not well-paid or well-respected, and is given to the least-qualified devs. I keep finding myself promoted out of the position, or assigned to work on something that supposedly has more "impact" (read: increasing revenue and/or encouraging investment), even though from my perspective the most impactful work is helping loyal customers who already value the product highly enough that they're paying for support.
How did you deal with the "overqualified" problem, or did you switch early enough that it didn't matter? From my end, I have over 20 years of development experience, and I feel that often disqualifies me from consideration by a lot of employers.
Quit my job as the CTO at a small Bay Area startup. One too many failed startups had taken their toll, I felt like a boxer that had lost his chin.
Thought about culinary school and becoming a chef but after reading Kitchen Confidential, I changed my mind. Decided on welding/fabrication and ended up working on a ranch that had a metal fabrication shop. I enrolled in some classes at the local CC so I could improve my skills and ending up getting an AA in welding and a few classes short of one in machining.
Got a part time job teaching metal trades at the local CC which led to becoming a certified welding inspector through AWS, no the other AWS. I accepted a tenure track offer but switched to management after a few years.
I became the director of CTE department that oversaw the creation of a mechatronics and cybersecurity degree program as well as opening up a makerspace. I loved it because it really allowed me to leverage my eclectic skill set. However, due to a staffing shortage I ended having to train, not teach as I wasn't faculty anymore, incumbent workers as part of a industry partnership. So now I was working two jobs, one blue collar and one white collar. This led to working 12+ hour days and coming in on weekends so I could catch up. In a nutshell, my objections to the situation fell on deaf ears so I quit out of frustration.
After a short break I went back to university to finish my bachelor's degree with the tentative idea of pursuing a job in edtech. Right after I graduated lockdowns started so I took the time to explore some other avenues while I looked for a job.
Today, I'm solo dev working on my first indie game funded by selling some Bitcoins I had been sitting on for over a decade. With the current geopolitical situation aside, I couldn't be happier.
I made the switch to gamedev a decade ago after more traditional startups. If you’d like to chat about the industry I’d be happy to. I helped build a larger studio, then went indie with some moderate success, now I’m doing the build a studio thing again because I am an insane person.
Not sure if this is what you mean, but I 'switched' from an ML consultancy to entrepreneurship. I now build and market my own projects ([1], [2]) and try to gain enough ad revenue to replace my former salary.
Started 1.5 months ago, and enjoying every minute of it! No longer occupying my mind with corporate power dynamics saves a lot of cognitive bandwidth, but to my surprise it has been replaced. I thought I'd feel more 'free', but instead I now feel self-imposed pressure to make this one shot count. I know my runway is limited, so every day that didn't tangibly contribute to bottom-line growth feels wasted. I can rationalize it by reminding myself that I can always get a job and try again later, and that I should be spending most of my time on mid to long-term goals that have delayed effects. But that hardly changes how I _feel_. All in all, I'm really glad I made the jump, and I'm still super excited about what I do now.
Hey Ruurtjan! Funny just replied to you on Twitter yesterday :)
I think any switch actually counts irregardless.
I feel you on the uncertainty thing. Quite honestly don't think you ever can escape this feeling. What helps is sort of going backwards from your imagined lifestyle that you want to live and how much you need.
Generally there is always a conflict of how much $ can I earn on the job and maximise my retirement account vs risking it with potential autonomy factor but less or no $.
Think the best we can do is just try to accept that feeling and do the best to achieve the financial needs necessary to keep going.
nslookup.io is great — bookmarked it, I’m sure I’ll be using it in future!
Side note, curious how the domain name autocomplete works when searching? My domain wasn’t suggested, but all the other services I tried in my sector all came up. What’s the source for that data?
I did software engineering for 3 years after graduation. Now I teach mathematics in a high school since '20. Software engineering was very stressful for me and I also wanted to sync holidays with my kids. Parents seem to value my background. Pay is low but I have a reasonable amount of extra time to tinker.
I was a software developer during the dot-Com days. Lost everything when my company folded. Transitioned to being a licensed funeral director. Some of my funeral director highlights include working for the Office of the Chief Coroner, supporting the Canadian military during Afghanistan operations as a civilian funeral director and ending up in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 to do recovery efforts for the Canadian government. Got injured on the job and ended up on long term disability. Transitioned back to be a developer because I used the downtime to learn to code again.
Let's just say the last 20 years of my life have been an adventure. Life is good.
I left tech in July and I'm building furniture and woodworking now. I had been doing Rails since 2007, ending my career with a great 4.5 year stretch at Apple and was ready for a break. Two to four weeks off a year just isn't enough for me and my family and simply getting paid 10-20% more wasn't going to change our life.
I'm loving it. I don't sit or stand in place for eight hours a day. I'm learning a ton. I'm engaging with both local builders and master craftspeople. I get to share my work with family, friends, and neighbors. There's a lot of volunteer opportunities that don't require anything but showing up and willingness to help.
If anyone is interested in leaving tech for woodworking, feel free to reach out. My contact info is in my profile.
How did you start and how long did it take to start making a sustainable income? I would prefer to switch to something that puts me on my feet but I can’t imagine how I could make it work financially.
TBH at this point in my career I think I’d rather just deliver mail even if it paid 75% of my current salary (unfortunately it’s more like 33%).
How did you get connected with the the volunteer opportunities?
Do you live somewhere that you can afford to have enough space for a home workshop? I want to woodwork, but the Seattle area is prohibitively expensive to have the woodworking space.
Mid-career I went back to school for a PhD in Computer Science, and now I definitely think of myself as a CS researcher rather than an engineer. I still write code occasionally, but it’s no longer a daily activity. I switched because I wanted to better understand the why’s of what I was doing as an engineer (applied ML by the time I got out if the game). I like it a lot! Grad school salary was a rough come down after engineer money, but I was a saver, and I saw it as an investment in my happiness and future career. And I really love what I do now and feel like I have real impact on the world, so it was very much worth it!
I spent my 20s doing programming started off doing web dev and support and ended up doing the consulting thing. Got involved in a few games and start ups along the way. Made some money, have a bunch of opinions about how not to do things, met interesting people,and generally thought I was in for the duration.
I had kids, and my spouse flat out makes more money than me for fewer hours and better benefits. So, I am now the full time parent. We decided that having one of us stay home would be the best for the kids. So far it seems to make a difference.
It has really great parts and hard bits too. Basically, after a decade of short deadlines and long hours it's hard to adjust to the final product being your kids be good people by 2035. You get to rediscover the joy of playing at the playground, pet neighborhood dogs, and visit libraries and museums. On the other hand,I think that in the first year of COVID my number of adults interacted with per week approached 1.
I admit that I keep my foot in the door at one of my previous employers where I do someplace between zero and 5 hours a week of work on some legacy systems I helped build and have now been left to grow unchecked for 10 years.
Overall, I think that from a pure lifestyle perspective I don't think I can go back to 50+ hour weeks.
I was a software engineer for about 10 years. Now I’m a furniture maker and occasional finish carpenter.
Worked at Twitch as an early-ish employee, we got acquired by Amazon. Made it to Principal Engineer and just got tired of the sorts of problems that are hardest in software at scale: project management, building consensus, migrating systems.
Also got really tired of the wastefulness of software: so much software gets thrown out in under 5 years. Stuff that lasts 10 years is considered extraordinary, and 20 years is almost unheard of. I don’t like knowing how ephemeral all the effort is. Maybe one day we will know how to make good software but we dont today.
So I want to make “permanent” stuff. Nothing meets that bar but furniture and carpentry can at least manage a few hundred years.
I totally love it and don’t miss my old career at all. The pay is way worse but I saw this coming and saved well while I was paid the insane software salaries that are common today. I am on my feet, more fulfilled, and find the mental effort is actually much higher - the problem solving is more interesting to me. Mostly though I am just much more proud of what I make and do.
Went from opera singer to developer to most recently CTO Solutions Architecture which is more change management and BD strategy than anything else. Enjoying it so far and it’s definitely blowing away my idea of a comfort zone. 37 now, will probably look to do another industry change again around 45-50. I could probably go into performing arts technology or something like woodworking or auto mechanic would be a lot of fun.
Moved from development to quant trading. Still involves writing code but that's not the focus, and the code is for yourself, not somebody else. Much more satisfying having such a direct feedback loop between your code/research and its impact on the markets in production. Also feels more intellectually stimulating in that many of the problems you solve don't have an existing solution (or at least not one in the public domain). And very satisfying if you're a competitive person, because your every success is in a sense the failure of somebody in another trading firm.
Followed Bill Gates' footsteps and bought a section of farmland. I grew up in FFA, and knew I wanted to raise beeves, etc since I was young. After a divorce, I pulled the trigger. Software funded beeves.
I'd been programming for about 20 years, but it wasn't fun anymore, and it had become a drag that I wanted to get away from. I recently (end of last year) applied to (and got hired at) a teaching position at the school I got my own degree from (they're programming and related courses, so it's relevant to my experience). This is something I had promised myself a good decade ago and I finally made good on it. I used to hate leaving the house to sit in an office, and wanted to work from home. Now it's a classroom, and I love being there and having this role. It's everything I hoped it would be, I honestly couldn't be happier.
I'm in the process of transitioning out of a FAANG SWE position to be full time in property development.
There's not enough houses for people to live in. Most people hate you for "driving up prices" and "gentrifying neighborhoods" - but it leaves me much more satisfied than engineering.
After paying ~40% tax for a decade and paying ~3x what the Fed and State spend per Capita over a lifetime - it's nice to see my working hours reduced dramatically and my true tax rate drop down to ~12%.
You don't need to make $1M per year, when you don't have to give $400k to the tax man.
[+] [-] Ayesh|4 years ago|reply
I hired a chef and a manager to do the work professionally, and I pay for wages, rent, material, etc. But I get to learn the immense efforts it takes for a brownie to be on a table, for a cake to bring a smile to face, and a cheesecake to melt in the mouth. It was a fresh experience, and I really like the change of pace it brought. We have been experimenting with waffles, brownie flavors, cheese cakes, etc. It feels like buying a new domain every day!
[+] [-] gmays|4 years ago|reply
I'm in a similar spot--my wife bought a retail business (gift shop + dress boutique) with her sister around 2018. My tech background made some things easier, like modernizing how they operate (bluetooth scanners, iPads, inventory management vs. the old clunky stuff that was in place).
Retail is a hard way to make a dollar, but very interesting -- I manage the business's finances and bought the commercial building they operate out of (and rent it to their business at a loss), so I've been learning a lot. For context, the business has grown ~30% YoY the last few years. But to continue growth I think we'll need to expand business online (90%+ of sales are in person).
"Sell online" seems harder and harder these days due to the competition--building to thrive in brick and mortar is different than online. During COVID they started weekly Facebook live shows which do well, but the audience is mostly local.
Since it is a brick and mortar businesses they already have processes for inventory, etc. in place with thousands of SKU's and are next door to the local post office, so I think there are some opportunities to leverage that into unique business opportunities. For example, they are a gift shop and specialize in helping people find gifts. What if they turned that into a service where people submit who they need a gift for + their budget and the store sends a gift to the person?
If I ever take a few months off I'd probably spend time thinking about how to leverage the unique advantages of old-school brick and mortar businesses like this.
[+] [-] nouveaux|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sprocket|4 years ago|reply
We've been making cheese going on 8 years now, and have expanded into sheep and cow's milk production, in addition to our goat's milk varieties. Unlike most of the cheese producers around us, we focus on raw milk cheeses with natural rinds. Many of our varieties are inspired by cheese I encountered while working in Europe.
We're just emerging from our kidding season and heading into lambing. It's the most challenging period of the year, as we'll have 150+ kids and lambs arrive over a couple of weeks. The shift has been fulfilling overall, and I still do work on some tech related projects which has been great. I have to some degree begrudgingly watched my peers' income shoot up dramatically over the last 12 years, while I have to work twice as hard to bring home the same amount.Overall though, it's been net positive for my family, and while I've tried to quit farming at least half a dozen times, I was never able to bring myself to make the break.
[+] [-] angrygoat|4 years ago|reply
Right now I'm in training for ordained ministry in a Christian denomination. I came back into regular church worship a few years ago, and then started studying theology through my diocese and found I loved it. Now I'm close to completing a Masters of Divinity at university, and I'm in my third year of training at theological college.
Software skills have been much more useful to all of this than you might think. In the church the idea of 'calling' has a particular prominence; sort of doing those things that you find rewarding, that you have the skills and aptitude for, and that also help others – God is seen to be in all of that, too.
It took a while but at a certain point I just realised that while I'm really good at software, it's not the other two things for me. It's a funny thing to let it go, slowly, and if I am ordained I think it'll be my equivalent of playing with train sets in the garage.
I guess what I'd take from all of this is that even in a secular sense, we're always learning about ourselves, and it's never too late to be brave and explore something new.
[+] [-] jwitchel|4 years ago|reply
Solar is a fantastic industry. Lots of room for improvement feels like internet did in thr mid 90s. Just a ton of enthusiasm and a sense you're part of something big and important.
[+] [-] robodale|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sandoze|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matsemann|4 years ago|reply
(At least I feel what I do give me meaning)
[+] [-] ryandrake|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dplgk|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mancerayder|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RickJWagner|4 years ago|reply
I'll never forget the great crash of 2000. Among the signs I should have seen-- I knew a guy from my bowling league who quit his job to day trade. I don't know what your qualifications are for this line of work, but this guy had no discernible skills. He was doing fine 'till the big crash, then he was wiped out.
Please be safe.
[+] [-] k8sToGo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lazyeye|4 years ago|reply
Just dont be this guy
https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/ti1jg8/i_owe_nearl...
[+] [-] billsmithwicks|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akulbe|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] barbarbar|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iamgopal|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 55555|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kimsant|4 years ago|reply
Last month, when war started I told my team, Aerovironment stock, is gonna double (war drones) but I'm not gonna be part and I want you all to feel how calmed I'm about that and undertand (I don't need those 100k). I now undertand the difference between being Socrates or a 'sofist' (greek philosophs both, one for pleasure, the second as a job). Investing shouldn't be a need, is what's best for humanity. I think Elon musk already refered this way
[+] [-] danurman|4 years ago|reply
I started as a web developer, but I realized that my favorite part of the job wasn't building new pages/apps but helping my colleagues when they ran into roadblocks. I got a reputation as a problem-solver and people would come to me with their thorniest bugs or browser compatibility issues and I loved it - the detective work of investigating and diagnosing the issues, the creative solutions to work around browser limitations, and the satisfaction of helping people achieve their goals.
Then I met a product support engineer at my friend's startup and heard about that role, and realized it was an entire job made of what I loved most about my previous jobs. I joined the team and was on it for years, and have been working in technical support for software products ever since (about twelve years now). I still build websites as a hobby, but I wouldn't want to do it for a job anymore. I'm very happy in product support.
[+] [-] alisonatwork|4 years ago|reply
How did you deal with the "overqualified" problem, or did you switch early enough that it didn't matter? From my end, I have over 20 years of development experience, and I feel that often disqualifies me from consideration by a lot of employers.
[+] [-] bloqs|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imachine1980_|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RubberMullet|4 years ago|reply
Thought about culinary school and becoming a chef but after reading Kitchen Confidential, I changed my mind. Decided on welding/fabrication and ended up working on a ranch that had a metal fabrication shop. I enrolled in some classes at the local CC so I could improve my skills and ending up getting an AA in welding and a few classes short of one in machining.
Got a part time job teaching metal trades at the local CC which led to becoming a certified welding inspector through AWS, no the other AWS. I accepted a tenure track offer but switched to management after a few years.
I became the director of CTE department that oversaw the creation of a mechatronics and cybersecurity degree program as well as opening up a makerspace. I loved it because it really allowed me to leverage my eclectic skill set. However, due to a staffing shortage I ended having to train, not teach as I wasn't faculty anymore, incumbent workers as part of a industry partnership. So now I was working two jobs, one blue collar and one white collar. This led to working 12+ hour days and coming in on weekends so I could catch up. In a nutshell, my objections to the situation fell on deaf ears so I quit out of frustration.
After a short break I went back to university to finish my bachelor's degree with the tentative idea of pursuing a job in edtech. Right after I graduated lockdowns started so I took the time to explore some other avenues while I looked for a job.
Today, I'm solo dev working on my first indie game funded by selling some Bitcoins I had been sitting on for over a decade. With the current geopolitical situation aside, I couldn't be happier.
[+] [-] hesdeadjim|4 years ago|reply
I made the switch to gamedev a decade ago after more traditional startups. If you’d like to chat about the industry I’d be happy to. I helped build a larger studio, then went indie with some moderate success, now I’m doing the build a studio thing again because I am an insane person.
[+] [-] lifeplusplus|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mauvehaus|4 years ago|reply
[0] https://longwalkwoodworking.com [1] https://github.com/longwalkwoodworking
[+] [-] pul|4 years ago|reply
Started 1.5 months ago, and enjoying every minute of it! No longer occupying my mind with corporate power dynamics saves a lot of cognitive bandwidth, but to my surprise it has been replaced. I thought I'd feel more 'free', but instead I now feel self-imposed pressure to make this one shot count. I know my runway is limited, so every day that didn't tangibly contribute to bottom-line growth feels wasted. I can rationalize it by reminding myself that I can always get a job and try again later, and that I should be spending most of my time on mid to long-term goals that have delayed effects. But that hardly changes how I _feel_. All in all, I'm really glad I made the jump, and I'm still super excited about what I do now.
[1] https://www.nslookup.io/
[2] https://www.whoismyisp.org/
[+] [-] jasfi|4 years ago|reply
My own projects:
https://cxo.industries
https://tradecast.one
[+] [-] kentrado|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kirso|4 years ago|reply
I think any switch actually counts irregardless.
I feel you on the uncertainty thing. Quite honestly don't think you ever can escape this feeling. What helps is sort of going backwards from your imagined lifestyle that you want to live and how much you need.
Generally there is always a conflict of how much $ can I earn on the job and maximise my retirement account vs risking it with potential autonomy factor but less or no $.
Think the best we can do is just try to accept that feeling and do the best to achieve the financial needs necessary to keep going.
[+] [-] jw1224|4 years ago|reply
Side note, curious how the domain name autocomplete works when searching? My domain wasn’t suggested, but all the other services I tried in my sector all came up. What’s the source for that data?
[+] [-] alexk307|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] meowface|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bunje|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ToddWBurgess|4 years ago|reply
Let's just say the last 20 years of my life have been an adventure. Life is good.
[+] [-] billsmithwicks|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bradly|4 years ago|reply
I'm loving it. I don't sit or stand in place for eight hours a day. I'm learning a ton. I'm engaging with both local builders and master craftspeople. I get to share my work with family, friends, and neighbors. There's a lot of volunteer opportunities that don't require anything but showing up and willingness to help.
If anyone is interested in leaving tech for woodworking, feel free to reach out. My contact info is in my profile.
[+] [-] micromacrofoot|4 years ago|reply
TBH at this point in my career I think I’d rather just deliver mail even if it paid 75% of my current salary (unfortunately it’s more like 33%).
[+] [-] snowman-yelling|4 years ago|reply
Do you live somewhere that you can afford to have enough space for a home workshop? I want to woodwork, but the Seattle area is prohibitively expensive to have the woodworking space.
[+] [-] whiskeyocelot|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] c0nfused|4 years ago|reply
I had kids, and my spouse flat out makes more money than me for fewer hours and better benefits. So, I am now the full time parent. We decided that having one of us stay home would be the best for the kids. So far it seems to make a difference.
It has really great parts and hard bits too. Basically, after a decade of short deadlines and long hours it's hard to adjust to the final product being your kids be good people by 2035. You get to rediscover the joy of playing at the playground, pet neighborhood dogs, and visit libraries and museums. On the other hand,I think that in the first year of COVID my number of adults interacted with per week approached 1.
I admit that I keep my foot in the door at one of my previous employers where I do someplace between zero and 5 hours a week of work on some legacy systems I helped build and have now been left to grow unchecked for 10 years.
Overall, I think that from a pure lifestyle perspective I don't think I can go back to 50+ hour weeks.
[+] [-] spenczar5|4 years ago|reply
Worked at Twitch as an early-ish employee, we got acquired by Amazon. Made it to Principal Engineer and just got tired of the sorts of problems that are hardest in software at scale: project management, building consensus, migrating systems.
Also got really tired of the wastefulness of software: so much software gets thrown out in under 5 years. Stuff that lasts 10 years is considered extraordinary, and 20 years is almost unheard of. I don’t like knowing how ephemeral all the effort is. Maybe one day we will know how to make good software but we dont today.
So I want to make “permanent” stuff. Nothing meets that bar but furniture and carpentry can at least manage a few hundred years.
I totally love it and don’t miss my old career at all. The pay is way worse but I saw this coming and saved well while I was paid the insane software salaries that are common today. I am on my feet, more fulfilled, and find the mental effort is actually much higher - the problem solving is more interesting to me. Mostly though I am just much more proud of what I make and do.
[+] [-] 5arias|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] logicchains|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _eht|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cyphax|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] onlyrealcuzzo|4 years ago|reply
There's not enough houses for people to live in. Most people hate you for "driving up prices" and "gentrifying neighborhoods" - but it leaves me much more satisfied than engineering.
After paying ~40% tax for a decade and paying ~3x what the Fed and State spend per Capita over a lifetime - it's nice to see my working hours reduced dramatically and my true tax rate drop down to ~12%.
You don't need to make $1M per year, when you don't have to give $400k to the tax man.