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

First thing to do is get used to a much lower salary. Mostly kidding but channeling how often I see sentiments online of people saying they want to leave tech and then balk at the salaries normal people have.

that's the hard part for me, I'd have to change every aspect of my life because any other job would probably start me at 25% of what I make now

sell my house, put my kids in a different school district, be terrified about health insurance

if I fail I'd have to go back into tech and would have uprooted everything in a way that's probably irreversible

I’ve heard this argument many times; some of those times it came out of my own mouth.

the thing is… if you and your spouse get a 25% bump in salary right now, a year or so from now it is likely you’d write the exact same comment as this one above even though a year ago you were in the same boat and obviously managed beautifully without the extra 25%… :)