Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

Fascinating! Try talking anyone working in literally any other industry and tell me more about how the whole system is stacked against software developers.

I'm not sure. I was thinking about going back to school and re-training entirely. Maybe electrical engineering or something. Some days I just want to be a plumber or electrician.

I've been working in web and I really do like building front ends, but I'm very tired of being "full stack", especially when the stack is a cobbled together mishmash of microservices and cloud architecture that just keeps growing in complexity

I just want to be able to focus on one thing and get good at it. Being "full stack" feels like it's preventing me from really focusing in and becoming an expert on any one thing

Work is an intersection between what the company wants and what I'm willing to do. I can leave the company, try to change it from the inside and accept the consequences, or adapt to the situation until I can find or create something better.

But I find that whinging that work should fit my worldview becomes dis-empowering quickly. The temporary dopamine hit from getting sympathy venting and believing that the rest of the world is crazy makes me feel like something has changed when nothing has or perhaps will. And that just causes me to feel worse over time.

It's also interesting to see how opinions of what is fair, right, reasonsable, etc start to change as the contributor becomes a manager of a team and then an owner. The individual's context can have a lot to do with shaping the opinion.

I didn't intend to say "do your own thing" to mean "make no effort to generate any earned income." You could instead slow down and take on a la carte freelance/contract work. -Or you could take a risk for a couple years, and maybe your project launches into the abyss of space, never to be seen by a single soul; at least you'll have something to show for your work gap years.

-But I would caution against treating life too much like an Excel spreadsheet, too. It's never going to turn out anything like you plan, and I'd advise to critically examine wealth advisor boilerplate. At least for federal US tax code filing HoH (which is what I'm familiar with), we get >$60k tax-free to realize in long-term capital gains each year. If you can generate what you need now to live on with investment growth at least matching inflation -- and I'll point out you can get a serviceable house on an acre in a safe neighborhood for <$150k in most US states if you're willing to live away from a major metro -- you can likely generate enough to live on in retirement, especially if social security and medicare still exist. I take ~$20k/year in contract work and keep my unearned income under $11,950 for EITC purposes, with remainder/majority of my annual deduction eaten at least partially by my daughter's capital gains (she gets SSI survivorship which I dump directly into an individual/unsheltered brokerage account), and without mortgage payments, things are peachy -- I don't even spend that much per year.

You’ve clearly been through the wringer and picked up real experience. So why not grab two others like yourself and build something of your own? Pick any industry. Eventually, you’ll hit a similar wall. Everyone does. That’s the moment that sorts people. Most quit. Very very few push through. Those with passion, as you claim ("love").

Honestly, I’m one of those brain-dead folks, trying to jam AI into everything. Not because it’s always smart, but because I don't have a choice. We pitch anything without AI, and no one even listens. No budget, no job—simple as that.

It’s a social epidemic. People look at each other. We all keep pushing things too far in one direction, even when it makes no sense. There are many ways to do some other things. (I'm reminding myself here, not you).

Bottom line: pick yourself up, find your crew, and start building. Then, lead like a brain-alive exec.