Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

It is important to understand that everyone has sometimes escape phantasies (teachers, therapists, baristas, founders, medical doctors, professors, developers, etc., they all do) because something is making them truly unhappy in their day-to-day job and they assume other people happier. Finding about the root cause what makes you unhappy will usually lead to more satisfying results than just running after to become a farmer or woodchopper because it has nothing to do with "computers". Sometimes the answer is to switch roles but more often than not you still haven't tackled the underlying issues and the misery starts again.

Dropped out of tech, arguably more by force than choice. My lifestyle, finances, social life, even country of residence (and by extension my love life) were all balanced on top of that little MacBook Pro. Used it for work, used it to socialize, eventually my brain refused to let me mediate my entire life through a computer any longer and I burned out. Now I work at a hotel! Receptionist, barista, waiter, even some maintenance and housekeeping when there’s a need for an extra pair of hands. It covers my needs financially and I get to interact with dozens of new people on a daily basis, which has proven absurdly healthy for me. Still “do tech” in my spare time, but now there’s no pressure, only desire. It’s better for me, but I would hesitate to generally recommend this model of “become sustainable outside of tech and then dip your toes in as you like” - it probably only works because I have previous tech experience, and I am far less productive now as well. But maybe it is not a bad idea for techies burning out.

I took early retirement from an office-based software consultancy job (aged 59) and started volunteering at a Raptor conservancy two days a week. It gave me a level of social contact - with the staff and other volunteers - that I liked and also meant working outdoors in all weathers, sometimes dealing with the general public. As I spent more time there I learned the ropes and could essentially just pitch up and find something to do. I was also trusted to work with the birds: not just de-pooping aviaries but helping to fly them in displays. And to monitor work experience students, and help host 'VIP' experience days, where paying members of the public (amazingly) saw me as having some expertise with the birds.

The downside was that I lost money doing it (transport costs and no pay) and some of the tasks were mundane and / or physically uncomfortable (e.g. cleaning waterbowls on a cold rainy January day). But overall I loved it, partly because the birds and environment were so appealing, but also because compared with my old life, when I went home at the end of the day, I had no keep-you-awake-at-night responsibilities to worry about. I was also really pleased to have progressed in a new 'career' where my old status and technical skills counted for nothing, and I had to earn trust from the much younger bird team by pitching in and doing physical stuff. This was for me the best thing.

The greatest such story I've ever read is this one from a GitHub issue comment:

https://github.com/docker/cli/issues/267#issuecomment-695149...

> Sorry I missed your comment of many months ago. I no longer build software; I now make furniture out of wood. The hours are long, the pay sucks, and there's always the opportunity to remove my finger with a table saw, but nobody asks me if I can add an RSS feed to a DBMS, so there's that :-)

Every job I ever had in tech was basically terrible and I was never diagnosed, but I suspect was clinically depressed for the 13 years or so I was in tech.

I did not have the savings to do it, but I eventually quit and became a bicycle mechanic. I actually enjoy what I do now, and the work environment doesn't have me constantly jumping back and forth between panic, undirected rage, and extreme listlessness like tech always did. That being said, I'm now broke and probably going to lose my house, so there is that.