Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

Left to work in equities after 5 years of software dev. I find the work much more stimulating mentally, as you learn about the world and how business works, not just abstractions.

Luckily there is still a lot of use from my old skill set, and I suspect there will be more as time goes on.

In general, when those thoughts crossed my mind it was when I was working a job I should have left already. There are good companies that value developers and/or give them a reasonably good balanced work environment. Generally the two go hand in hand. For places that don't, frustrations and poor practices tend to push us into less fulfilling lifestyles.

But if pressed... Corporate pilot comes to mind. I've spend I don't know how much money on training and aircraft rental. Most piloting jobs for corporate clients have you working only 2 weeks out of the month. That is, you only fly about ~250hr a year. The rest of the time can be spent hacking or doing whatever else you'd like to do.

I left to get a PhD in math. Now I'm back, sort of.

I got kind of burned out after I got laid off at the tail end of the first dotcom implosion—I'd stayed in a really toxic environment for a couple of years too long because things were rough for a junior/early-mid-level developer back then, at least in my market. So I spent several months depressed and unemployed before deciding to go back to school which ultimately led me to preparations to go to med school.

Ironically, I took a semester off and took a contract gig for a few months to pay off some bills and save up some cash, and that turned into a full time job writing software in the public health sector. I never did return to finish the undergrad, and have doubts I ever will, as my career in software has been about as good as medicine would have been when you balance the ten extra years of earnings against a slightly higher salary. The only reason I'd do it now would be to pursue a masters in something interesting.

I think if I had it to do over again I'd have probably just stayed in the market a little longer and skipped out on the student loans. I loved biology and medicine but i'd love to not be paying off the student loans too.

> someone researching climate change are the two things that I've considered. I have no background in either

Don't worry. In case of so-called 'climate science' the most important is whether your results are 'in line with', your background and the way you obtained these results are secondary.