91–100 of 160 posts
There's always been absurdity though, right? These are some I can think of or have witnessed since starting my dev career in 2010: - 4GL business languages making developers redundant - Big data - Cloud computing - DevOps - LLMs For those about to quit, I salute you.
> 1. What pushed you to do it?
The pursuit of curiosity, for the most part. That's what makes quitting a lot harder when you have a good job and nothing to complain about: you feel like you're making a huge mistake on a whim. Doubly so when you consider the state of the job market at this time.
That said, we don't live to work; we work to live. It's a lot of risk and uncertainty, but you should remember that while some unknown bad things can happen in the future, unknown good things can happen too! [1] When you own your time, you increase your luck surface considerably: you have more opportunities to travel, to wander, to play, to meet new people, to tinker, to discover.
So I've been thinking and reading about this a lot. The final push came from two books I read: "The Pathless Path" by Paul Millerd [2] and "The Inner Compass" by Lawrence Yeo [3]. I can't recommend them enough.
> 2. What will you be doing? (Even if nothing!)
I have a huge Steam backlog to beat... :) Besides that, I'll be studying computer science and maths. Programming language theory, compilers, and functional programming are particularly close to my heart.
But, most importantly, enjoying life!
I don't have much savings on me, but I'd rather go frugal and downshift than be producing slop for a living.
I quit about a year ago... I did a crazy experiment: Built and shipped 25 projects in 25 weeks. Several of those projects made it to the top of HN here. One went viral and ended up in TechCrunch and many other big-name sites: https://channelsurfer.tv I wasn't _trying_ to make money. I just wanted to build a bunch of cool shit, rekindle my love for building websites, make the web more fun, and maybe figure out what I…
It’s not about money until you have no money At least you now know what privilege feels like
People have to know that it's not about money
Cash is not the way to make your life sunny
There is no need if you've got the soul seed
Love life and peace it can only begin
When you know in your heart sun shines from within
Love all your brothers and love all your sisters
Love all your misses and love all your misters
Don't be shy when you're sharing your kisses
'Cause jealousy gets boos and hisses
What AI-first means for companies who are not actually AI companies is elevating staff with the right degree of _partiinost_ around AI and using vendor AI products to show how many Jira issues have been closed in pursuit of the latest exciting and important new transformation.
I just quit recently. After a few years in big tech the only thing I have to show for it is a fat bank account. I don’t remember the last time I’ve learned something new or had any kind of responsibility. I’ll be joining a startup in a few months to hopefully find the joy in my profession again with a fresh start and more skin in the game.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've come to understand, talking to a friend who is also in the startup world, that there are some CEOs who run a "portfolio" of startups. It's pretty weird. I don't really understand why investors would put money in a company that only has a part-time CEO.
SpaceX, Tesla, and X have entered the chat....
You can't avoid the bullshit unfortunately. Whatever company you join, it will be the same thing. If the company REALLY provided value, they would have gone bankrupt. There's no avoiding the bullshit. You must embrace it.
My current company, even though slower than the industry, has started pushing AI-first for everything. Funny that as soon they announced it they started losing senior developers and most teams are now composed mostly of juniors + 1 senior.This on safety-critical adjacent products. Burnout and bugs are rampant. As a counter measure they are increasing salaries of the seniors but with low adherence. I'm currently looki…
The first trend of AI was "use as much as you can! You must use AI!!!". Hence the rise of tokenmaxxing leaderboards and KPIs on token use.
The second wave, happening right now, is "use it, but control cost". All the cool kid CEOs are now talking cost-control, rate limiting, and metering. If your management is a "follower" they are bound to hop on the trend.