Ask HN: I want to leave tech: what do I do?

If you already have enough investments to not work, why would anyone even work in tech?

Leaving the grind when you already kind or rich is easy mode. Leaving it when your net worth is negative is another story.

Why would anyone work in tech? Because making something that didn't exist before is kind of a thrill. (No, that is not the same as cranking through Jira tickets...)

Off topic, I started working in tech because I enjoyed it. That it was also well paid was a nice coincidence. You can be in the grind and be unaware of that.

Of course people like this still suffer due to overexposure to work and js frameworks; and many eventually grow to dislike tech jobs and want to leave.

Note that this joy is not unique to tech. Carpenters, farmers, painters, etc, all make things that didn’t exist before. Some of them haven’t heard about Jira.

May I introduce you to all of blue collar work.

That thrill is present in any creative endeavor. If you like tech and enjoy that thrill, yeah, work in tech. At the same time, if you are tired of tech and want that thrill, go make something else. I'm a collector of hobbies at this point, having at least dabbled (if not more) in woodworking, stone carving, jewelry making, furniture upholstery, fused glass, painting, drawing, sculpture, clothing design, and creating nature trails in our forest. They all give that thrill.

Tech pays better, though - so I work in tech to pay the bills, then spend the money on tools to get that creative thrill somewhere else.

Right. That's what got me into tech, too. Turned out to be mostly a lie - most jobs aren't making anything exciting or new (except maybe for the wealthy in the financial sense), and those that do tend to limit your autonomy.

Now I stay in tech for the same reason most people stay in their careers - it's comfortable and pays well, but because that's mostly a function of "time served"[0], it also means that I'm trapped now. I can't just switch fields anymore - at this stage of life, switching is a major multi-year project!

(Also I question whether it would help. Working in some field never looks much like you imagine while being outside of it.)

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[0] - Tech has an unusually large multiplier here, but the trend is the same as with any other job.

Thank you. I needed to hear that. As someone getting close to retirement (and with a job that's getting more boring), that was very helpful.

Exciting and new doesn't necessarily mean novel. I get quite excited when I build a new bit of code that solves a frequent pain point for someone. It's likely built on a boring framework, in a boring language, wouldn't work at scale, and solves a boring problem only a few people have, but the drug makes for a nice little high, and the small business world has a huge supply.

Sure, that's what Github is for. Working in corporate environments is another story.