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Ask HN: Who is quitting? (July 2026)

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Re: Ask HN: Who is quitting? (July 2026)

#31

Post by m_m_carvalho »

I'm not quitting, but AI has completely changed my priorities.

Building software has become dramatically easier over the last year. The hard part is no longer creating products—it's getting people to discover and trust them.

I spend far more time thinking about distribution today than implementation. That's a shift I didn't expect.

Re: Ask HN: Who is quitting? (July 2026)

#32

Post by mtrimpe »

Rnonymous wrote: post #11

Im close to stopping. Founder of a deeptech/hardware startup in a difficult sector and we are struggling to get our tech validated (latest datapoint are no improvement over the current practice). While i believe with sufficient time it can be proven and improved, that crosses into the realm of academia and not entrepeneurship. So yeah motivation is quite low at the moment, and im not sure if to push-on or accept fail…

Are you doing it to get money/success/fame? Stop. Data says no.

Are you doing it because you want to bring something new into the world? Acknowledge that and keep going as long as it's healthy for you overall.

Re: Ask HN: Who is quitting? (July 2026)

#33

Post by witx »

My current company, even though slower than the industry, has started pushing AI-first for everything. Funny that as soon they announced it they started losing senior developers and most teams are now composed mostly of juniors + 1 senior.This on safety-critical adjacent products. Burnout and bugs are rampant. As a counter measure they are increasing salaries of the seniors but with low adherence.

I'm currently looking and I'm considering cutting my salary up to 50℅ to work for a company with a very interesting product that doesnt push AI and let us instead decide where to use it.

I'd rather lower my quality of life than put up with this bs and being forced to use a tool that I disagree so much on an ethical and moral pov. Let alone letting managera decide which tools I have to use on my engineering work

Re: Ask HN: Who is quitting? (July 2026)

#34

Post by jagged-chisel »

malfist wrote: post #25
poly2it wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What inspired you to attempt pursuing butchery?

Their github stats said they deleted more lines of code than they added

Christ, someone hire this guy. He obviously knows what he's doing. Going against the trend (moar lines!), trimming out the fat (I mean software, but maybe he has a future in butchering ... ), making code slimmer, tightening abstractions ... it's hard to find these craftsmen anymore.

Re: Ask HN: Who is quitting? (July 2026)

#35

Post by ryan_n »

huflungdung wrote: post #13
kilroy123 wrote: post #12

I quit about a year ago... I did a crazy experiment: Built and shipped 25 projects in 25 weeks. Several of those projects made it to the top of HN here. One went viral and ended up in TechCrunch and many other big-name sites: https://channelsurfer.tv I wasn't _trying_ to make money. I just wanted to build a bunch of cool shit, rekindle my love for building websites, make the web more fun, and maybe figure out what I…

It’s not about money until you have no money At least you now know what privilege feels like

They literally say they ran out of money lol how is that privileged?

Re: Ask HN: Who is quitting? (July 2026)

#36

Post by phantasilide »

I just quit recently. After a few years in big tech the only thing I have to show for it is a fat bank account. I don’t remember the last time I’ve learned something new or had any kind of responsibility.

I’ll be joining a startup in a few months to hopefully find the joy in my profession again with a fresh start and more skin in the game.

Re: Ask HN: Who is quitting? (July 2026)

#37

Post by jchallis »

Rnonymous wrote: post #11

Im close to stopping. Founder of a deeptech/hardware startup in a difficult sector and we are struggling to get our tech validated (latest datapoint are no improvement over the current practice). While i believe with sufficient time it can be proven and improved, that crosses into the realm of academia and not entrepeneurship. So yeah motivation is quite low at the moment, and im not sure if to push-on or accept fail…

Read the Wikipedia page on the sunk cost fallacy. Knowing what you know now , would you have continued down this path ? The biggest costs are always opportunity costs and investing in something that isn’t likely to pay off robs you from higher value alternatives (including rest, recharging and joining a more successful venture) .

Re: Ask HN: Who is quitting? (July 2026)

#38

Post by tcp_handshaker »

snek_case wrote: post #10

I was working at an AI startup, and I saw our CTO lie in a demo to potential customers. I know that startups sometimes have a "fake it till you make it" mindset, but the guy straight up used a product from another company, presented it as our company's product, and faked numbers. I saw him completely misrepresent the capabilities of our product several times. Unethical and most likely illegal, I felt super disappoint…

"I quit later, as it became increasingly clear to me that this guy knew nothing about technology, didn't care, but also had a fragile ego where he had to present himself to the company as being in charge, even though he was the worst person for the role. To top it all off, it also dawned on me over time that we basically had an absentee CEO who was working only ~15 hours a week at most. Then when I quit I found out there was a third co-founder who owned a huge stake of the company and I did not even know existed."

This is so funny, because describes like the last four CEOs and companies I worked for :-) Is there an alternate reality I have yet to experience?

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