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I am retiring from tech to live offline

openpath.quest

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Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#231

Post by newt_slowly »

yubblegum wrote: post #87
sciencejerk wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably had a friend do it for him

Do the Amish pay non-Amish to do forbidden things for them? Asking for a friend.

I manage the Google Maps listings for two local Amish businesses, as well as send the occasional e-mail for them when a supplier or other business reason requires they use e-mail.

They offered to pay me for my time, but I refused as I'm happy to help my neighbors. They seemed pretty uncomfortable with me helping without anything in return, so they pay me back in discounted products or labor of their own.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#232

Post by jimbokun »

chrisweekly wrote: post #124
aurareturn wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best position anyone can be in 2026 is having financial freedom so you can leverage AI to build whatever you want. The worst position is working in a company with non-technical and AI psychosis management.

Figuring out what you want to build isn't necessarily easy.

Which is why you need the financial freedom to spend time figuring it out.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#233

Post by lemoing »

dataviz1000 wrote: post #191
sph wrote: post #70

Funny, if all goes well today is my last day as professional software engineer, after 20 years. I have enough savings to buy a modest cottage and to last me a year or two being frugal. After that it’s anyone’s guess, but I am beyond excited not having to program for a living any more, just on what feels meaningful, in complete autonomy. Projects lined up: a Erlang-like microkernel/runtime I have been designing for th…

> last me a year or two being frugal Word of advice. Get a part time job where you can keep your skills up-to-date because from personal experience personal projects on GitHub will not be enough to land a job in two years. Make sure for every penny you spend you are earning equal. The two years are going to fly by. EDIT: I'm not joking about taking this serious. You want to be working when people start losing their j…

Seconded, though from a different angle. In my experience, it's surprisingly hard to live frugally when you don't have a job; my spending actually went up at first because I had all of this free time for activities I didn't have before. Started doing more hobbies, going for trips around town, generally participated in the economy more than I could when 8 hours of my day were spoken for. What I thought was a year of runway was probably closer to 3-6 months.

My solution was getting a part-time job (non tech) but also had to significantly change my spending habits which was not easy.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#234

Post by Mallory_Ringess »

leesec wrote: post #36

Lol, had to tell the internet on his way out huh. He'll be back of course as he clearly values the internet and makes it part of his ego.

A lot of these "I'm leaving, everybody, see? I'm really going now, OK. Did you hear that? I'm really leaving" posts are just a form of virtue signalling or likes-farming, viz. the flood of such posts on what used to be Twitter when Musk took over. The majority of those who claimed to leave were back within a few weeks to months to get their fix. Most of these posts are characterised by the poster not having any positive plans for the future beyond whatever they claim to leave behind, just complaints about whatever caused them to write those posts.

This post here does not seem to be like that. I suspect he's really planning on taking a hiatus from the 'net, something like a sabbatical at least. I do think he'll eventually return to the 'net in some form and he might even become active in whatever the free software world has morphed into by then but he does seem to have positive plans for the future. He's starting a magazine centred around an Orthodox Christian community, something which can provide the same type of fulfilment as working on free software projects can.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#235

Post by generic92034 »

__mharrison__ wrote: post #38

Chad is one of the kindest souls I've ever met. Good luck off the grid! Also, how did he post this if he isn't using the Internet?

If you are that pedantic you could also ask if he is living without a mobile phone, without a car and without any modern electrical appliance phoning home. So, probably him being offline is not to be taken quite so seriously.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#236

Post by hobofan »

rob wrote: post #90
sph wrote: post #70

Funny, if all goes well today is my last day as professional software engineer, after 20 years. I have enough savings to buy a modest cottage and to last me a year or two being frugal. After that it’s anyone’s guess, but I am beyond excited not having to program for a living any more, just on what feels meaningful, in complete autonomy. Projects lined up: a Erlang-like microkernel/runtime I have been designing for th…

Nothing like retiring with only 3 years worth of savings and no plan on what to do after that.

They didn't say that they are retiring, just that they are ending their career as a software engineer.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#237

Post by siren2026 »

I have been at it for 20 years now and have started to feel my time is up as well

As a lot of comments here highlights, the issue is not so much the tech but the politics, constant perf reviews, re-orgs, nonsense BS that is pushed top-down. This industry is taking a toll on you.

My advice for anyone reading this that is starting your career: Live simply and save a lot. When I started my career I thought I would love doing this forever. I would never imagine I would get burned out in the long run. I would never imagine I would think about retiring early because tech was so fun to me.

The reality is that money and savings give you optionality. It allows you to work without worrying day to day. You never know when the next wave of AI or BS is going to hit. That's when having that optionality is really important.

I have seen so many of my peers making very high tech income but also living the American opulent life, spending everything they make to buy multi-million dollar houses in the bay area to impress their friends. Today they have no choice than continue working for another 30 years. Today I can have a simple life and retire almost anywhere in the world.

Decide what is important to you. I guarante that buying the multi-million dollar home is not worth the extra 30 years of grinding.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#238

Post by GaryBluto »

elicash wrote: post #226
GaryBluto wrote: post #189

While I admire his commitment to his ideals, I find some of this veers into an uncomfortable fanaticism, especially the remarks praising the savage acts of violence committed by the Sentinelese (which I find particularly odd considering the author's professed religion). I doubt the Amish (who apply technology selectively and intelligently) would appreciate being compared to them either; the Sentinelese are not preser…

I took it as rhetorical, not a literal call for violence. That said, I appreciate you noting their name as it gave me something to google/learn.

Regardless whether or not it was rhetorical, I found it off-putting, especially when the Amish (a far superior example of the point he is trying to convey) are mentioned in the same article.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#239

Post by Weebs »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #8
kamaitachi wrote: post #7

I just retired after 40 years writing code. The last year or so wasn’t fun - battling with AI, trying to get it do what I wanted. For a long time, I thought I’d do a lot of hobby or open source coding when I retired. I haven’t even tried. I’m not burned out, but find I’ve lost the passion for coding I once had. Is that AI? Or is it me? Maybe as my retirement progresses, I can rekindle that passion, but as of now, I d…

It's not AI or you, it's this late stage capitalist marketing firehose of bullshit and enforced productivity. Hype is out of control, nothing is real, it's exhausting.

Shhh no class consciousness on HN allowed

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#240

Post by runjake »

kamaitachi wrote: post #7

I just retired after 40 years writing code. The last year or so wasn’t fun - battling with AI, trying to get it do what I wanted. For a long time, I thought I’d do a lot of hobby or open source coding when I retired. I haven’t even tried. I’m not burned out, but find I’ve lost the passion for coding I once had. Is that AI? Or is it me? Maybe as my retirement progresses, I can rekindle that passion, but as of now, I d…

> Is that AI? Or is it me?

It's you. And that's fine.

You can still code entirely without AI or AI influence, so that's primarily why I say it's you. It may also, in fact, be burnout. It sounds like it to me. And it's okay to get back into coding if you ever feel like it.

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