Ask HN: Burned out from tech, what else is there?

I often dream about being a carpenter, a park ranger, or a truck driver. But it feels like it's too late, and my family would suffer from the lack of funds as I transition and learn.

Teaching is a very fulfilling profession. Organising knowledge and developing learning material on topics you care about is creative and intellectually stimulating, and connecting with your learners gives it a human component that is often missing in dev roles. Some teaching jobs are even relatively well-paid...

Take a sabbatical if you can afford it and do random things. I'm in the US, so some of the things I've done - spent months through-hiking the Appalachian Trail, cave diving, camping, whitewater kayaking up and down the east coast. I needed another output and to put something besides work first. Work will always be there, and when I returned I found just working with other people more pleasant/rewarding.

If I was in that position with high NW, I'd quit and invest for a living (trend trade, not day trade)

Yeah, I know three - one transitioned to teaching, another to being a paramedic, and the last to social work.

On the other side I also know a teacher who switched to cyber security for the money after he started a family.

You have to know yourself and what motivates you to know if you'll find things more meaningful elsewhere.