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

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

#131

Post by Zucburger »

paledot wrote: post #63

I'm in the same place as you are, not FAANG salary but my wife has a FAANG job and we have enough savings to both retire now (early 30s) if we wanted to. I'm trying to figure out what I'd do if I "retired". Tentatively full-time parent part-time tinkerer, maybe put some of my back burner projects on the front burner and see if I can get a bit of passive income out of them. Mostly I'm feeling the lack of time and ener…

@paledot

Where did you first meet each other?

The lack of energy may be due to a lack of a pushing force, such as a boss.

Currently doing something on that topic if you want to discuss more.

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

#132

Post by dvxvd »

mrfusion wrote: post #79
dvxvd wrote: post #24

In the priority order: 1. Climbing mountains, hiking. 2. Have a goal to learn something new everyday.. thats how i measuring quality of the day.. zero learning = bad day 3. From time to time short term works to earn some money. Usually companies very surprised then i tell them that i prefer short term projects. Shorter = better So far so good ;) (approx 10 years) Good luck

What have you learned this week?

1. Found few very interesting thougts from this very long article: https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1zao_AyBhNb8TPWrQqgXn...

2. Learned tested and implemented for fun few visuals from this link: https://datavizcatalogue.com/index.html

3. Learned and tested two diferent frameworks for the web scraping.. nice, interesting what will be our role at the time when one machine prepare information and another machine will consume it..

4. Found interesting analysis at: https://www.vox.com/a/maps-explain-the-middle-east

5. Checked what are the main advantages of timescaledb and how can i benefit from it: https://www.timescale.com

6. Learned and tested how it works css data attributes https://css-tricks.com/a-complete-guide-to-data-attributes/?...

7. Read 20+ long and detailed wikipedia articles to find out definitions and origins of various terms and subjects

Read anothe hundred or more of posts and newspaper artivles, but i think it was wasting of time, because so many authors writing to get click but not tell something important/interesting.. subjective. I do agree.. problem is that i always hope that maybe at the end i will find some briliant mind or conclusion. so, im reading whole article.. need to change this bad habit..

Not bad week.. but always can be better..;) thing what im missing is - continuity.. but thats probably something what need to fix by myself..;)

...

This werk i also climbed 3 peaks with prominance grater than 1000 meters and elevation 2300-2700m... on commercial side i implemented two small automation improvements. Changes will benefit client company and at the end - myself..

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

#133

Post by itsmejeff »

Zucburger wrote: post #130
itsmejeff wrote: post #110

When I got bored with software engineering, I decided to invest in developing leadership skills and to try to build teams. Many people (myself included) are motivated by the impact their career can have. The impact of a great leader is exponentially larger than that of a direct contributor (based on the number people they can typically influence, and the amount of resources at their disposal to pursue “bigger” ideas)…

@itsmejeff What were the critical skills that you made yourself learn for the transition?

Truthfully — the biggest thing has been leaning into my gut more as opposed to trying to reason through everything thoroughly. The decisions are many and the time is short. Kahneman’s “Thinking Fast and Slow” is a great read, and when working in engineering management, the conclusion to be drawn from it is that your gut (aka system 1) is actually really good at summing all of your past experience and telling you what you should do. There is definitely more in the domain of human psychology that I have studied as well.

In addition, I’ve been forced to continue to hone my technical skills, but more in the domain of “why” instead of “how”. I was able to be an effective engineer by mastering the “how” (which of course required some non-zero knowledge of “why”). However, the types of minds that exist in engineering (or at least the types I want on my team), are not satisfied with a boss telling them “how” to do something. The reasoning must be sound. Engineers want to see the work. If you can’t provide compelling arguments for why a new policy or decision exists, then you quickly lose credibility.

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

#134

Post by jcborro »

Zucburger wrote: post #129
jcborro wrote: 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…

@jcborro I think there are many reasonably low hanging fruit in the industry that can and should be solved. The way that we are still needed to design a schema for things like a simple login system in a simple website, is a nasty smell that there are many reasonably low hanging fruit. @zffr Are you thinking of leaving the software industry?

Oh yeah, there are plenty of things that could be improved! Alas, getting any industry-wide traction on such solutions is beyond my pay grade (always failed).

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

#135

Post by mbrameld »

caprock wrote: post #37
mbrameld wrote: post #15

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.

whether or not I was working my brain was Did you find you were thinking more about technical problems or about problems related to management of people?

Both, tbh.

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

#136

Post by mbrameld »

ccostes wrote: post #38
mbrameld wrote: post #15

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.

That's awesome! Did you fly helicopters before starting on the instructor path? Helicopters seem like a blast, but the cost is on another level (and that's speaking as a fixed-wing pilot used to the crazy costs of GA generally).

No, I had no proper flying experience. I used GI Bill benefits to cover the cost.

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

#137

Post by mmiinnhhaazz »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #33

1. Selling real estate, raising kids, planning for various future investments and opportunities. 2. I was in software for 20+ years. It was all I had ever wanted to do from the time I was 13. In hindsight, I’d say you have a phase of the moon in which to make your money and get out. It’s a brutal industry and you will likely face burn out at some point and you need to be prepared for that moment. I was in many differ…

Any advice for getting into real estate? Seems oversaturated to me

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

#138

Post by paledot »

Zucburger wrote: post #131
paledot wrote: post #63

I'm in the same place as you are, not FAANG salary but my wife has a FAANG job and we have enough savings to both retire now (early 30s) if we wanted to. I'm trying to figure out what I'd do if I "retired". Tentatively full-time parent part-time tinkerer, maybe put some of my back burner projects on the front burner and see if I can get a bit of passive income out of them. Mostly I'm feeling the lack of time and ener…

@paledot Where did you first meet each other? The lack of energy may be due to a lack of a pushing force, such as a boss. Currently doing something on that topic if you want to discuss more.

I'm sure work could become my life if I wanted it to, but I want to back off, not double down. I definitely understand the abstract idea of a "pushing force", though. Part of this may be about learning to do without it. I've always needed a pushing force, and I want to be able to make and achieve my own goals for no reason other than my own satisfaction.

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

#139

Post by paledot »

mrfusion wrote: post #78
paledot wrote: post #63

I'm in the same place as you are, not FAANG salary but my wife has a FAANG job and we have enough savings to both retire now (early 30s) if we wanted to. I'm trying to figure out what I'd do if I "retired". Tentatively full-time parent part-time tinkerer, maybe put some of my back burner projects on the front burner and see if I can get a bit of passive income out of them. Mostly I'm feeling the lack of time and ener…

What kind of tinkering would you do? Have you thought of switching to a low paying but more fulfilling job?

Right now, woodworking and gardening. Later, who knows. Probably I'll circle back around to programming, but building things for myself instead of for other people.

I'm not really sure what I'd find more fulfilling in the day-to-day of salaried employment. In an abstract sense, sure, I could build websites to help orphaned puppies find forever homes instead of to help people find mattresses or whatever. However, if overall impact is my objective, I'm better off keeping the highest-paying job I can (consistent with my values) and donating my salary to charity.

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