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

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136 points todsacerdoti | 7 comments | 04 Jul 25 13:58 UTC | HN request time: 2.95s | source | bottom
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Jcampuzano2 ◴[04 Jul 25 14:26 UTC] No.44464856[source]▶
This article is not a "I want to leave tech" article. It is an "I want to have more ownership of the nature of my work" article.

Practically every recommendation is also a tech job, its just not "big tech" where you have very little real decision making power.

Tech itself is not the issue here - tech being filled with high paying jobs where you effectively work on issues that directly damage humanity is the issue. And after you have a high paying job its hard to justify leaving it, and every other similarly paying job is basically the same thing in a different package.

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1. hn_throwaway_99 ◴[04 Jul 25 15:53 UTC] No.44465591[source]▶
Glad this was the top comment. It is extremely easy to "leave tech" (or, as you point out, leave "big tech") - you just have to accept that you will most likely make substantially less money and that your "standard of living" will have to adjust accordingly.

I put "standard of living" in scare quotes because I strongly believe that, after a certain point in the US, people are conditioned by society and marketing to spend gobs of money on shit that doesn't make them happier and often actively makes them feel worse. I'm going through the process of moving and downsizing, and I can't even begin to go through the gobs of crap in my house that I'm throwing or giving away. Even home ownership itself is something that I feel is a bad lie - you're signing up to spend huge amounts of money to live in a box where you'll also need to spend huge amounts of money to slow its inevitable decay.

But I digress. The main point is that leaving (or changing) tech is easy, but you just have to have an honest conversation with yourself about how much you, your family and your self image requires a lot of money.

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2. deadbabe ◴[04 Jul 25 15:58 UTC] No.44465635[source]▶
What do you do with kids when you want to downsize? Give them away?
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3. hn_throwaway_99 ◴[04 Jul 25 16:16 UTC] No.44465777[source]▶
Of course, because that's obviously the only option.
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4. deadbabe ◴[04 Jul 25 18:55 UTC] No.44466977{3}[source]▶
Finally! No more $2k/month/per kid for daycare expenses!
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5. archagon ◴[04 Jul 25 21:23 UTC] No.44467985[source]▶
Pamper them less?
6. hn_throwaway_99 ◴[05 Jul 25 03:10 UTC] No.44469853{4}[source]▶
It always astounds me of how relatively well-off people simply cannot even fathom how the vast, vast majority of Americans with kids manage to get by without paying $2k/month/kid in childcare expenses.
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7. deadbabe ◴[05 Jul 25 06:07 UTC] No.44470442{5}[source]▶
Sounds very illegal, just leaving kids at home alone all day