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Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

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31–40 of 463 posts

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#31
You need to manage loneliness. Almost no-one can do what you’re about to do, unless they had a similar tech career.

It might ironically be easier to start a company. At least you know half of the stuff (tech); and the other half you have to learn from scratch. But knowing one half is a bit like being talented when you learn the other half - it gives you a head start over all the MBAs.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#32

Get a hobby (woodworking), something physical where you work with your hands (woodworking) and is easy enough to start but has near infinite depth (woodworking). Could be anything.

> Could be anything.

How about something like woodworking?

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#33
post #2

If you want a cautionary tale, here it is: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3134322 The coffeeshop fallacy (2011) It‘s easy to get blinded by how incredibly privileged the tech bubble is and have had a better experience so far just trying to find a great non-toxic spot in there. YMMV, good luck!

This is why it's so important to mix with people from outside of your bubble. HN has some of the worst examples of people who don't know what they have. The discussions around salary are particularly amusing. I'm lucky because my partner is a nurse so I never forget how easy my job is. I also grew up in a poor family and I haven't forgotten what that was like. Honestly, if people would go and spend a long time in a c…

For me it's not that I don't feel lucky or enjoy my job in a general sense I guess. I just don't want to do the same thing over and over again my whole life. I started programming on a Commodore at like 6 or 7 years old and have basically never stopped now that I'm in my 40s.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#34

Get a hobby (woodworking), something physical where you work with your hands (woodworking) and is easy enough to start but has near infinite depth (woodworking). Could be anything.

can confirm - did exactly this. Plus big+immediate quality of life improvements from the work you do! Note: "woodworking" also includes composites and some plastics (metal and paper are different). Laser cutters and 3D printers add fascinating options, e.g. laser cut a template for use with a handheld router.

there's also an egalitarian community in "builders" and you'll find all sorts of friends who just-so-happen to also have interest/skills in this stuff.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#36

I tech fast for 25 hours a week. No computer, no cell phone, no television, etc. It's amazing how much this sustains my motivation and enthusiasm. You can "switch" right now, at least 1/7th of the time. Not exactly what you're asking for but immediately actionable.

Was this comment made outside your fasting window?

Alternatively, I set a 20 min daily timer for chrome on my phone, seems to help a lot.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#38
yep my wife and I. we retired from tech ( startups) at 50. In order to keep out minds working AND make a buck we decided to both trade options. Luckily for us we have chums who own a trading environment that teaches people, like us, how to do this effectively and so we set off on our adventure. Very quickly into this I decided to code up a trading analysis dashboard which gave us guidance as to the REALITY of our approach. This coded in Python and Dash based on the math taught to us by a good chum who is a retired floor trader from the Cboe. Pretty successful one I might add. We read the financial times ONLY twice a week ( Fri and Sat) to find out what others are thinking but our REAL trading happens in the math. So I suppose it's an amalgam of tech and new adventure. The trading takes about 20 minutes a day and for the rest to the time we are out and about having fun in Chicago. I'm looking at a language called Julia to move to from Python but that is NOT going well and I am planning on chatting to the Carbon people next month. Hope this helps a little

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#39

Get a hobby (woodworking), something physical where you work with your hands (woodworking) and is easy enough to start but has near infinite depth (woodworking). Could be anything.

> Could be anything. How about something like woodworking?

Or they could start working with wood.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#40

You could join the resource industry, there's a labor shortage and there's all sort of vocational training. Some jobs require minimal training others more but you can be up and running in as little as 3 months for something relatively skilled. It's a refreshing feeling to have a job where the deliverables are very specific and day to day like you need to move this crap from here to there and that's it, no thinking ab…

> ...join the resource industry...

Would you kindly provide some examples? Would this be jobs like welding? I just never heard this term.

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