Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

news.ycombinator.com

111–120 of 164 posts

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting; toxic in what way?

I guess fumes coming out when you do welding are toxic. I have done it myself a few times and remember thinking about smell and if it can indicate I will get cancer frim it..

Actually, this is what I thought might be meant. But I am used to the phrase "industry is toxic" to mean basically "not nice", as opposed to literally toxic.

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#112
post #42

1. Traveling the US by RV (for the last year) 2. After 20 times through the product cycle and I couldn’t muster much enthusiasm any more. Having enough $$ to stop made my attitude go downhill faster. Being able to finally ignore/defy a truly terrible boss made it all come to a head even though I was walking away from almost 300k/y. Bye bye, zero regrets.

Do you tow a car or drive the rv around town?

Drive the (26’ motorhome) RV. Somewhat limiting in cities, but the rest of the time it’s so much easier not towing.

And there are tricks for dealing with cities, like parking on the edge and biking in. Or finding RV friendly lots using google maps satellite images.

Lately cities have far less to offer (no museums, galleries, restaurants, etc.) so it’s hike and bike and enjoy the beautiful country.

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#113
post #17

1. Opened a ski mountaineering shop ( https://skimo.co/ ). I backcountry ski most mornings in winter/spring before we open at a casual 11am; work on the site in the summer. 2a. Sick of pointless discussions about languages/frameworks/architectures, none of it matters to low-traffic/low-tech business. 2b. Sick of meetings/arguments to decide what to build. Making business and tech decisions simultaneously is amazingly…

How’s your business going to survive climate change?

I can’t tell if this is a joke.

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#115
post #88

1. I did a year long bike tour with my partner. When I came home, I went back to undergrad to study art (illustration + painting). So now I’m mostly a student, also working on my own art and doing some part-time work. 2. Boredom which became kind of existential. I had reached a new career high, and suddenly didn’t have anything to strive for - at the time, I didn’t have the insight to try and ask for more impactful w…

Your art looks quite cool! The bicycle paintings reflect somehow the amount of freedom I feel driving it.

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#117
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you consider tech brutal?

Do we work in the same field? It’s mentally exhausting. You get into it thinking you’re gonna build cool shit, instead you jump through hoops for business school grads as they come up with shitty ideas and try to apply their shitty high pressure motivation tactics on you.

Not just shitty ideas, but half-baked, unexplained, shitty ideas. What I wouldn't give for complete requirements.

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#118
post #10

1. Hiking the NW, thinking about next-steps. 2. Startup I was working for was acquired by FAANG co. Able to retire from FAANG after four years of plumbing / ops / politics / meetings. There was awful latency at all levels, from dev environment to deployment. I found it extremely boring compared to startup life. I would say don't judge software engineering by how it is practiced at the FAANG level (where you can serio…

Wow retired after 4 years. I'd work in hell for 4 years if it meant I could retire. You must of had a nice piece of equity in that startup. Congrats!

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#119

I got my helicopter CFI and CFII and started teaching in May of this year. I also interview for Karat so I'm not completely out of software but I'm not writing code or managing people anymore. I left because whether or not I was working my brain was. I get less actual time off now but I feel like my batteries get completely recharged. Plus I get paid to fly helicopters which is still unbelievable to me.

You can also get paid to dry cherries with your rotor wash.

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#120

I'm now a security architect. I get to work on a wider set of problems over the entire business, not just software. I left mostly because I became fascinated by security, while I was being asked to secure software. I realised I had no real idea how to do this, and the deeper I dug, the more interesting it seemed. I was also becoming bored by the relentless cyclic churn in software development methodologies and framew…

I'm an ASC. I find my security related work much more interesting than my development work.
Post reply on HN