Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

It's hard to suggest things tbh because it's very individual.

I decided to buy and move to a farm we're I will renovate it myself and create an environment which is quite, green and lively.

I also hope that this will give me the balance and allows me to look outside in my future park while working and also being able to transition into life work balance which is worth it.

Then I will try to design a sustainable day to day schedule for enough time for outside and study time. The study time itself will than be containing all the things you mentioned like learning music or another language.

I couldn't suggest what you should do next with your life because of course that's different to everyone.

But seeing that your experience is mostly on FAANGs and big companies, have you thought of going with a smaller early-stage company? These are environments where people usually expose them selves to a broader spectrum of things, even having the ability to choose specifically what they want to work on.

Workplace politics unfortunately are everywhere, small or big companies. You can't really avoid those.

I also can't stress enough other replies here about really exploring your self outside of work. What do you like spending your time on outside of working hours? Any hobbies that take your mind off? If there aren't any, can you start exploring new activities (without necessary having to take a sabbatical or move to another place?)

what about a really long vacation?

like half a year or more. call it a sabbatical.

if you have kids and/or a significant other, take them with you.

you are already thinking about what to do next. find a way to not do thing, other than sun and relax and maybe some bodily activity.

(From my experience, had more than 1 burn out over the years).

Hah that is a great video. I graduated in '05 and it was very similar. Everyone was asking why I was doing a CS degree - no future in tech, everything is being out sourced, etc. But I did it because I loved computers and coding! That kind of person seems very rare nowadays. I rarely work with people who had a similar passion - coding when they were a teenager for fun, for example.

Only thing I'd say about that video is they don't mention privilege. Joining an early stage startup in the US was only really possible if you were coming from a place of privilege imo, even when it was "uncool". At least that's what stopped me - I had 80k in student loans to pay off with a 10% interest rate, so I couldn't really take risks at that point in my life.

On that note, I’ll share my personal “FAANG-remedy” project here: https://blog.erlend.sh/reclaiming-my-digital-identity

I’m working on this with a dozen or so loosely connected, values-aligned people distributed across the globe. Matrix is a key part of the puzzle. You’re very welcome to just hang out and see if anything our collective is engaged in sparks your interest.