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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

#561

Post by overfeed »

robocat wrote: post #466
throwfaraway4 wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH I think most people's lives are on autopilot and I can't blame them. This is what late stage capitalism has endoctrinated into our culture. I was one of them until some events made me look critically at retirement. After crunching the numbers I could have retired years ago. Sticking it out a bit longer to squash the rest of the concerns my spouse has.

> late stage capitalism versus > crunching the numbers I could have retired years ago How do you reconcile the apparent hypocrisy of your wealthiness? The stereotype is a boomer taking their winnings and then complaining about the system. I've got just enough money to start worrying that my savings will mostly be taken by my government. Perhaps it is time for me to join the old white man complainer's club (is HN that…

> How do you reconcile the apparent hypocrisy of your wealthiness?

Does this specific category error have a name? I see it so frequently, it's ridiculous. Being genre-savvy/aware of the meta-game doesn't mean one can opt-out, or refuse to play. Recognizing how a game is rigged often allows one to play it better than the average person.

I'm not GP, but my acknowledgement that society is unequal, and that I sometimes benefit from the inequality doesn't mean I have to be dude under the bridge, nor is it immoral since I cannot opt out of humanity. All I can do is minimize my odds of falling into societal cracks, and I make no apologies for that.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#562

Post by Markoff »

drnick1 wrote: post #560
Markoff wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

25000€ a year is basically Czech average salary I would really like to hear how is quality of life in suburban America incredibly higher ROFL owning a car certainly isn't tied to income, quite the opposite, poorer the person more cars they own in their junkyard

It's quite simple really. In a place where $5,000+ monthly incomes are common, people can afford more things, and this generally means a higher quality of life. Granted, many necessities like housing are also more expensive in high income areas, but keep in mind that American homes are generally much larger than in Europe. And things like AC and clothes dryers are taken for granted.

got it - for you quality of life = house full of useless things

for other people it's usually - lots of green, clean air, museums, cultural events, activities, accessible healthcare, accessible education, playgrounds/supermarkets/schools in walking distance, great public transport, no need to drive everywhere in empty metal box, etc.

I wonder why European cities are winning always charts of best places to live and not some generic US suburb??

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#563

Post by nwhnwh »

xp84 wrote: post #173
hylaride wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've rekindled by passion by working for a startup again. My previous employer (which I also joined as a startup) ended up in a situation where the head product manager became VP of engineering (it's a complicated story - don't ask). We also had a yes-man director of Eng and together they went all-in on very orthodox scrum, where they sat in the sprint planning/point meeting and overrode every decision of what to tak…

Good for you. It’s so exhausting dealing with these people who are constantly chasing a fantasy that through some process, or through sheer force of will, we can achieve a system where all the feature work gets done super quickly and we never have to pause or slow down to handle engineering concerns because they simply don’t exist.

The ERP field is filled with these people.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#564

Post by nwhnwh »

aurareturn wrote: post #52
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I retired, after 30-some years. Actually, I was forced to retire, by folks that don't think us greyheads should be working. Fortunately, I had the means to retire. Those means had nothing to do with a FIRE strategy. I just saved, lived humbly, and stayed at a job for a couple of decades. But I have been doubling down on my tech work. Once the knuckleheads were removed from the soup, the flavor improved markedly. I lo…

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.

"non-technical and AI psychosis management" man, I am done... I am so much done.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#565

Post by tonyedgecombe »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #457
deadbabe wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Friend had a baby. She went out and bought a massive Cadillac Escalade. To haul around a 10 pound infant.

American trucks are an arms race. You need one to protect the occupants from the other trucks on the road, unless someone legislates to stop all of you from driving them.

I wonder how safe they look when you take into account the people running over their own kids in the driveway.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#566

Post by tonyedgecombe »

coldtea wrote: post #171
hellohello2 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, have you tried working seriously with claude code or gpt codex and which part of it did you not enjoy? What makes you wish to write code like 2022?

If you just like talking and some program comes out (aka "business problem solving") you might like it. If you like coding (aka "problem solving"), it feels like crap. And if you like still having an IT job in a couple of years, it feels like dangerous crap. (Of course you can be hoping you'll be the one selected, out of millions laid off, to get to keep working on a higher level).

It will be somewhat ironic if the people losing out in this transition are the ones screaming about it’s benefits.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#567

Post by DamonHD »

drnick1 wrote: post #427
sph wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in tech, especially from US, are so accustomed to spending $5,000/mo just to survive, that they cannot fathom one is able to live without having a tech job in San Francisco. It's a pretty sad state of affairs. I live in a first-world European country where the average salary is about €25,000 per year. My mortgage estimate is less than €300/mo. I'm not that afraid of having to supplement my income if I need to.…

> People in tech, especially from US, are so accustomed to spending $5,000/mo just to survive, that they cannot fathom one is able to live without having a tech job in San Francisco. It's a pretty sad state of affairs. Quality of life in suburban America is incredibly high relative to a "first world" country with such a low average income. From what I have seen, most families in the "European periphery" still live in…

I do not own a car.

I (/we) own outright a small home.

I am happy that I do not need to own a car (in a London UK suburb).

I am happy that I do not need to heat or maintain a large building.

Our outgoings are low. One child is already at university and the other will be soon.

My perception of a common US notion of a 'good' life only intersects somewhat with mine, and I have spent a reasonable amount of time in various US locations from SF to NYC via the midwest, etc.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#568

Post by hermitcrab »

dhosek wrote: post #557
hermitcrab wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why a chicken farm? The medium to large scale ones I have seen videos of look like terrible places, for both the chickens and the human workers. I expect they smell even worse.

It’s more a rhetorical thing than a reality. The appeal to me of raising chickens for eggs is not having to slaughter them,¹ but reality is much uglier than that, of course. ⸻ 1. Back in the 00s, I would buy our weekly supply of eggs from a woman who sold eggs at the Beverly Hills farmer’s market. She had photo albums of the chickens at the farm. One Sunday morning, I overslept and arrived towards the end of the mark…

>The appeal to me of raising chickens for eggs is not having to slaughter them,

Doing that in your backyard with a few chickens sounds great.

>but reality is much uglier than that, of course.

Much uglier at any sort of commercial scale.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#569

Post by timcambrant »

repelsteeltje wrote: post #395
patcon wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chad is one of the most high-integrity persons I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. He is not fucking around for clicks in any shallow sense. I agree with the sibling comment that your cynicism is deeply misplaced imho. I mean, you can be cynical for whatever reasons, but I just think you'd be assuming (and participating in and perpetuating) a game Chad isn't playing.

Well, at least the way he handless the typewriter and scribbles seems somewhat performative. If it's just a draft version, he seems capable of handling the typing hammers very professionally, adding online corrections staying within margins. Seems way more seasoned in typing, than most typist of those days. And yet, he can't find the time or patience to retype the piece without typos as a final version? I don't know…

Doing performative things is not in conflict with expressing ourselves publicly.

People create art and write in various ways and they are free to do so. If he wants to announce to the world that he's leaving the Internet (which is more of a meaningful expression than doing it quietly, for sure) then he can be creative about it without it invalidating his purpose. He could have even posted a photo or a poem along with the message and I don't think that would make it less meaningful.

I would hope that creative expression doesn't die just because we now have tools that lets us express ourselves flawlessly, if we choose to use those tool.

Re: I am retiring from tech to live offline

#570

Post by cubefox »

enos_feedler wrote: post #529
cubefox wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note to readers: I had very bad results with trusting my gut.

Can you explain?

Let's say it like this: at least being on the "autism spectrum" impairs the reliability of various gut intuitions.
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