I plan to leave tech to pursue art • Hacker News Board

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#151

Post by kinleyd » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 11:42 AM UTC

6stringmerc wrote: post #148

kinleyd wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear you. In my case I was finally able to get to music late (past 50). I'm so grateful I was around long enough to do that. It does not pay any bills, but it gives me much happiness, even though the guitar playing is subpar.

Don’t worry guitar is an awful instrument in design and worse than learning German. Enjoy the ride, the quirks, and all the fun songs along the way. Nothing like Tom Petty to make a whole room feel great!

Well said, indeed! I am in fact working my way through some Dylan, Neil Young and Tom Petty, among others. I simply Won't Back Down. ;)

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#152

Post by anta40 » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 3:55 PM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #33

"The most important thing when creating art is that you know what you want to say with it." When I make art I do so only to please myself and without any preconceived notions or intentions as to what it should be or what messages it's to convey. It completely does not matter to me what, if anything, anyone else gets out of it.

Probably because the OP's intention is to "...inspire people to change their life for the better". Put emphasis on "inspiring people".

But nevertheless I'm agree what that. Whenever I take a look at my photos, I found most of them are boring, even though I tried to be intentional (not taking random snapshots). Beyond visual beauty or adhesion to composition guidelines, I rarely find them tickling my brain.

Guess reading aesthetics can made you too self-critical :p

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#153

Post by anta40 » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 4:05 PM UTC

jayd16 wrote: post #128

If you don't like tech then there's no reason to force it but a lot of this is fairly naive. >churning out code to solve problems I don't care about? Career artists often churn out art they don't care about. Pick a job that solves problems you do care about! The trade is a separate choice. As someone who works in games, I can assure you there are tech people that think about kindness, creativity, history, culture, ar…

My totally unscientific hypothesis is: "solving problems you do care about" is usually the easiest way to make money, e.g CRUD and web API.

Once your skill is more polished and your experience is wider, then try to look for jobs where their goals aligns with your interests.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#154

Post by mushbino » Mon, Nov 14, 2022, 2:20 AM UTC

goldenchrome wrote: post #141

mushbino wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He could just move to Product Design for half the pay of a swe and the same treatment as a production artist. Worst of both worlds.

High tech pays designers the same as engineers and in my opinion it’s a much better gig. No one’s looking over your shoulder to see how many lines of code you commit.

At a FAANG, a Product Design IC can make up to around $350k/yr. A SWE can regularly make $1M/yr. My BiL is an eng manager and he makes a little over that. One thing I've noticed is that most engineers seem to be relatively happy and stay at places longer. Most designers seem to be miserable.

Just my 2¢, but having hard, understood metrics can be easier in many ways vs much more nebulous things that can be hard to quantify. That kind of turns into more of a popularity contest.