Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

> The causal effect of quitting a job is estimated to be a gain of 5.2 happiness points out of 10, and breaking up as a gain of 2.7 out of 10! This is the kind of welfare jump you might expect if you moved from one of the least happiness countries in the world to one of the happiest, though presumably these effects would fade over time.

> Both results are significant at the p=0.04 level, and fortunately I don’t think Levitt had many if any opportunities for specification mining here to artificially drive down the p value.

https://80000hours.org/2018/08/randomised-experiment-if-your...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17840275

^^ big caveat emptor in the top comment though ;-)

Everyone here is ridiculously hireable right now

If things suck, just save up 6 months' worth of expenses and quit to start a SaaS business. If it blows up in your face, start looking for a new job when you're down to about a month of runway.

No sweat!

When I left the Navy at age 25, I had just been overseas. I had applied to a Master's degree program at the same university where I got a BS. There was a mix-up and no one had ever looked at my application, but several people knew me and they had my grades from my BS, so when I showed up in person one week before classes, they accepted me (I was paying my own way) and I started. I ended up getting a Ph.D. instead.

In 1999 at age 34, I quit my job as CFO for a small unsuccessful hedge fund. I applied at Raytheon where I had worked briefly before (they were impressed with me) and I applied to work at a lab at the university where I got my degrees. I got offers from both places within a month, and I was working again.

In 2004 at age 39, I quit my research job at another small unsuccessful hedge fund (run by the same people). I once again applied at Raytheon and at the same university job and again got two offers. I was working again in two months.

In 2006 at age 41, I quit again. I spent a year taking fun classes in Machine Learning and Astrophysics. In 2007, the people at the small hedge fund convinced me to work again for them.

In 2009, I quit again because my son was having very serious health issues and I wanted to stay with him in the hospital for six months (he is OK now). In 2010, I applied at the university lab where I had worked before and I ended up working there for 7 years. After 7 years, I was laid off.

   About a year later, I ended up getting a job a huge prestigious hedge fund as a quantitative analyst.  I quit about six months later in 2017 (I just could not hack living in New York City).  The same night that I quit, my old boss from the small hedge fund called me just to say hi.  When he heard that I quit, he immediately offered me a position which gave me a small salary but also made me a partner in the firm.  I still work there now.