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Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

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181–190 of 328 posts

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#181

Post by yardie »

barberousse wrote: post #131
ergothus wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The industry is immature and is bottom heavy. I'm not entirely sure what "bottom" you refer to here. From what I see, there's a misalignment: Lots of senior people lose time doing work that doesn't require senior people, because there aren't enough non-senior people available to do that work. The solution to this is seen as hiring more senior people, which fails, because while there are lots of junior people, no on…

>So the industry (in terms of people experience) is bottom-heavy in the work pool. Places that can afford it are top heavy in talent+experience, and everyone else is bottom-heavy in low experience, and neither type of place is doing anything to really address their problems long-term. When I came to my company I was a junior front-end engineer with no CS degree. A few months in or so in I'm apart of a post-work discu…

Liberal arts grad here. It is infuriating how much I here how schools are a waste of time (money at today's rates, I totally agree). Like university is the only place you can go to learn things. And the only way to make a living is through the degree you earned in university.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#182

Post by jeofken »

driverdan wrote: post #178
jeofken wrote: post #169

For years I struggled to become financially independent (as Mr Money Mustache). Years upon years of watching the clock until it hit 17:30, hating the dumb coders who made a mess for me to clean up (because I know FP, and if we had types these bugs wouldn’t be here in the first place!). A year ago, I pulled the plug, and retired. Finally, I could work on my dream project every day. I did so for 6 months, and travelled…

A common problem with FIRE is that people don't have hobbies other than FIRE. Once they retire they don't know what to do. Get some hobbies, try new things, build something physical, volunteer with non-profits. If I could stop working today I'd never be bored. I've taken two extended periods of time off (6 months and 18 months) and both times the primary reason for going back to work was money. I had plenty of things…

That might be, but it wasn’t the case for me.

I play music, have some pretty cool coding projects, am self-studying science, do sports, and have good friends. When this contract is up I’ll def take some months off, maybe another half year. Would have never imagined the situation to turn out like this for me, but apparently that’s the kind of guy I am. Born a work horse, distressed with no heavy load to carry.

I just wish I knew this during my working time, so that I wouldn’t had been such a resentful, selfish, prick.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#183

Post by zanny »

jeofken wrote: post #169

For years I struggled to become financially independent (as Mr Money Mustache). Years upon years of watching the clock until it hit 17:30, hating the dumb coders who made a mess for me to clean up (because I know FP, and if we had types these bugs wouldn’t be here in the first place!). A year ago, I pulled the plug, and retired. Finally, I could work on my dream project every day. I did so for 6 months, and travelled…

When dealing with bullshit is voluntary it can be cathartic to not be responsible - its the fault of the system when things go wrong or things are inefficient, and you just get to go along with it.

Sadly, for most people, they are compelled to labor in bullshit without any other option, and that is what makes people bitter and resentful. Which in practice severely curtails their productivity or capacity to try to positively influence the environment away from bullshit... its a self perpetuating cycle for most.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#184

Post by Baeocystin »

mfoy_ wrote: post #39
sesteel wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Detaching emotion from the outcome is key. I've heard it described as professional distance or professional objectivity and it is a key component of maturity. It is more prevalent in other industries, but tech has grown so fast that we have a serious mentoring problem. There isn't enough good mentors, people with decades of experience, to go around. I grew up in part of the industry where people had been working for…

Reminds me of part of that poem by Kipling... "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:" (I highly recommend reading the whole thing. Not that long.) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/…

What a delight. I'd never read that before. Thank you for posting it!

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#185

Post by jeofken »

taurath wrote: post #179
jeofken wrote: post #169

For years I struggled to become financially independent (as Mr Money Mustache). Years upon years of watching the clock until it hit 17:30, hating the dumb coders who made a mess for me to clean up (because I know FP, and if we had types these bugs wouldn’t be here in the first place!). A year ago, I pulled the plug, and retired. Finally, I could work on my dream project every day. I did so for 6 months, and travelled…

What will you do when you retire for good?

I did intend to retire for good.

Now I’m thinking to maybe do coding a few months per year, and food delivery on bicycle for the rest, in order to get a work out and be useful to someone.

I realized, if I’m not useful, then I’m useless.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#186

Post by sctb »

kayimbo wrote: post #159

academic junior developer gets wank off imagineering job and gets frustrated that he sucks at it. Goes to burning man and takes acid, decides to switch careers. Double posts it to hacker news, for the upvotes? cool story bro.

Please don't post unsubstantively here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#187

Post by jeofken »

zanny wrote: post #183
jeofken wrote: post #169

For years I struggled to become financially independent (as Mr Money Mustache). Years upon years of watching the clock until it hit 17:30, hating the dumb coders who made a mess for me to clean up (because I know FP, and if we had types these bugs wouldn’t be here in the first place!). A year ago, I pulled the plug, and retired. Finally, I could work on my dream project every day. I did so for 6 months, and travelled…

When dealing with bullshit is voluntary it can be cathartic to not be responsible - its the fault of the system when things go wrong or things are inefficient, and you just get to go along with it. Sadly, for most people, they are compelled to labor in bullshit without any other option, and that is what makes people bitter and resentful. Which in practice severely curtails their productivity or capacity to try to pos…

You may be right.

I wish I could have realized this when I had to work, because I chose to live in an existence where I caused myself and my coworkers suffering over the bullshit.

Being useful to someone was a need in me, but I thought I just worked for the paycheck. As the Jewish saying goes, “Man plans, God laughs”.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#188

Post by balabaster »

andromedavision wrote: post #177
balabaster wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "of course"? You say this as if a foregone conclusion, a statement of fact. There's zero wrong with considering what it means to be a man. Just because I don't address what it means to be a woman doesn't make me sexist. It's not toxic to consider who you are and what values you hold dear. Perhaps the wince that's induced in you is projection on your part? It doesn't make me wince. Nor do I apologize for it. I don't…

This is what I have a problem with; one cannot even share a simple poem without it degenerating into a virtue signalling debate. Now you're forced to defend something that you had nothing to do with. Yuck.

Unfortunately, that's the world we live in at this moment where too many people need to find validation by belonging to some virtue group or another because they care what other people think. In hindsight, I'm not sure why I even cared enough to defend my position. Perhaps I'm not so different as I'd like to hope.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#189

Post by onemoresoop »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #105
hobs wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like moralizing claptrap to be honest. I have worked at multiple companies with the churn'n'burn mindset, and while some handle the stress better than others, the only thing that handling the stress will get you is more work and stress. Are there people out there who are taking the world too personally? Yeah, definitely. When I see people weeping in a bathroom, not once, but so many times I dont even notice it…

We have one stall at work that's called "the crying box". It's got a box of extra box tissues, it's a little bigger than most (handicapped), and we keep an old Game Boy with Tetris hidden behind the soap dispenser. Pretty much everyone disappears in their for about 30 minutes once a week. And this is the men's restroom by the way. Not sure how the ladies deal with things.

Just wow!

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#190

Post by zanny »

BucketSort wrote: post #173
nabnob wrote: post #36

I've been having the same existential crisis for a couple years now. I started working at a FAANG company right out of college, then after a bunch of personal health problems ended up taking a leave of absence that I didn't return from. I took a long break from software and started learning politics, philosophy, and history, and eventually came to the conclusion that most of the world's problems are social/political…

What was your reasoning that lead you to believe that the social/political problems of the world won't be fixed with technology? I personally have come to the opposite conclusion. I think we need systems to help us reason about and model various social and political issues. Many issues of today go unresolved because they are hidden by complexity. We need systems to help us navigate this complexity. I'm tired of seein…

We have seen demonstrable evidence for over twenty years now that if you build a way to more easily inform yourself on reality, facts, historical accuracy, etc that people would rather use that system to justify their own preconceptions and biases than seek out truth that might influence their beliefs.

Technology can only supplement a mindset where people are agreeable to solving problems in the first place. Most social and political woes are intentional, someone is "winning" for someone else's "losing", and often neither party wants the arrangement to change even if from the outsider perspective it would be "so easy" to fix, especially technically.

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