Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

Started making cheese on the side, and he later turned that into a full-time cheese consultant business. Eventually worked for restaurants and local providers, few gigs with large dairy concerns, travel to areas to help set up literal cheese caves, etc.

Almost certainly makes less, way less, money than before but seems happy. Dude has a lot of connections and knows like every kitchen in the city, can rock up to restaurants and knows half the staff, etc.

My best friend was driving long-haul tractor trailers across the USA and since I had a half year waiting for my ATC school to start I went to truck driving school and got my license so I could team drive with him for a bit.

After graduating ATC school and training on site for a year I was unable to meet the increasingly-difficult requirements to progress to the next level. After a while it was evident to both me and my instructors that I wasn't going to be happy even if I managed to pass those barriers as my brain wasn't wired for continuous focus (I hadn't yet been diagnosed with ADHD).

I applied to return to university and while waiting for my application I worked as a construction supervisor. I had spent my teens working for an industrial construction company and they were delighted to take me back on a temporary basis as they were very busy and the market for experienced supervisors was tight.

Finally got back into university but before I had graduated with an agricultural science degree one of my professors asked me to do a Masters graduate program with him. So I eventually graduated with an M.Sc. in agricultural economics and business. I worked as an analyst/lobbiest for five years but disliked reading government documents so took a position as a Market Analyst.

While working as a market analyst I discovered that Excel was a terrible tool for handling all but the simplest data, and in my search for a solution I encountered Python and it's data analytical ecosystem.

While I would never consider myself a programmer, I loved the increasingly complex solutions I could create with Python and, inevitably, ended up learning Linux servers so I could host my data, scrapers, and visualization web servers.

And now I'm wondering what's next, but since my kids are teenagers I'm pausing here for a bit until they move out to avoid unnecessarily disrupting their lives by uprooting them and moving away to a new position.

Also, I’m not talking about “expensive” hobbies. Almost all sports need some sort of equipment and time investment from the parents. Summer camps for some parents are a necessity because they need child care during summer months. Vacations for kids are also expensive and people typically save all year long to take them. I could go on.

Interestingly, as I recall, nearly as many people are injured each year from power tools as are injured in vehicular collisions (in the US) and way more people drive than use power tools.

There is a solution, yes, but the problem is not solved.

I'm back in tech now, which took hard work getting up to date. I was out for ten years and basically missed a whole lot, such as containers, cloud as the path of least resistance, and React. On the other hand, Linux and Python haven't gone out of style.

I enjoyed my time teaching and the perspective gained. I don't regret it, and I did learn more about my own strengths and weaknesses.