Ask HN: I don't want to code anymore. What else can I do?

The silver lining in being laid-off or fired numerous times, for spans of a year or more, is that I've been forced into re-thinking things and my relationship with coding and work. I don't think I'd be able to re-enter a coding job otherwise, it just gets miserable at a certain point, it's isolating, bad for your body, stressful at times; I do think this comes with anything you pursue for long-enough while trying to push yourself in some direction or another, unless you just get extremely lucky and it becomes entirely optional.

In those times, I've worked in random jobs (cafe, etc..) when they've come up, where I've had a different physical and organizational relationship with peers, solving different problems, using my body and communication skills differently, on different schedules, and I think that's absolutely crucial. A LOT of the time it's not as easy as you'd think; if you don't get rejected out of hand for a myriad of reasons, many jobs aren't as easy or as miserable as one would think from the outside. Volunteer work may also be incredibly rewarding. This is my recommendation to you, especially if you have some savings to fall back on for an extended period of time. It'll give you the space to consider things differently and get out of the headspace of being mired in code. Take up a challenging hobby and not-so challenging one, just to do anything else buy coding. Try to learn design or something in the visual arts to a serious level. Have an adventure.

Ultimately, I had the same thoughts as you earlier on in what can only vaguely be called a career, that coding is somehow intrinsically important and I should love it and it'll change the world or whatever crap, but later after numerous burnouts, I realized that coding is just whatever, it's text, it makes computers do things, who cares it's not that important. But it can still be compelling in various ways, and that's fine too, let the relationship be an organic one, and let it fight for your attention once you've put your attention elsewhere.

we choose to kill ourselves staring at the screens all day to make a few extra bucks ;)

Each consulting gig reminds me why I'm not cut out for that world. It's everything coding is not. But when a corporate hires me to write some code, I understand that the corporate BS is the job .

I still love coding. But working for a corporate is not coding (at any level). Coding is what you get to do when there's a gap between meetings.

I know jobs are hard to get right now. But you might find more joy working in a small company, with people who already fit your preferred tech choices. I will say there's somewhat less job security and a lot less pay, but equally there's no bs and there's more freedom to actually code.