I was laid off in Q3 24. I knew it was coming because I had already been forced to take two weeks off from burnout when my brain just lost the ability to reason about code any more, so realistically it was a blessing. I decided that I wasn't going to even think about programming for at least a year, simply to let my brain heal.
It worked, I feel much better and started working on my own projects again, but now I feel like that gif from Community when Troy walks in with pizzas and the apartment is on fire. The state of the entire computing industry is strongly making me second guess if I want to continue in this career.
My wife and I are in a good enough place financially that I don't need to work for a long while, but... I dunno. There has to be a pretty significant course correction before I'm willing to enter those trenches again.
The sad thing is, this is the second time that my career of choice has evaporated out from under me (I was a projectionist in the 2000s). I don't know where I'm going to go from here.
I quit in '23. I didn't have F-U money (heck, I don't have running water) but I did inherit some money from my parents when they passed, enough to buy a shack on some land and to get my living expenses low enough that running sound and playing music could pay the bills.
I will note that I did quit before my parents passed on, mostly because my kids (I am 48 and had them young) had graduated college and I realized I wasn't going to make enough in my remaining working years to both buy a house where I want to live and fully retire.
So I quit and lived in my truck and did stage hand gigs that payed a better day rate than I got programming, even though they were only a couple of days a month.
I am in EMT school because I like to do first aid at festivals and support my local free clinic. One of my recording clients just left with the masters of his album he cut out at my off-grid, solar-powered recording studio.
In additions to the realizations about the reality of retirement, I just got tired of answer pages to reboot a server at 1am because my boss was to cheap to offload some containers to a second server.
Also, I enjoy programming (this last winter I re-learned C to work with ESP32), but watching the less-talented folks at the biz use it as a crutch to make ever cruftier, bug riddled stuff made me a little repulsed.
It didn't help that I was doing WordPress customization/hosting/troubleshooting for large institutional clients- for as much money as it made me, it is was still a towering pile of shit that required being able to really work all parts of the stack including layer-zero issues.
So here I am, Dale-Gribbling it up in the middle of nowhere, unemployed, unable to tell the difference between massive inflation and massive gains in my portfolio, sitting a rural shack in Colorado surrounded by a bunch of musical instruments.
Yall should quit while there is still time, if you can.
I quit last year and have just been chilling and working on side projects. The reason I left was because of mandatory RTO combined with a very steep decline in the engineering culture of where I worked.
Got tired of having to talk to like five different people who barely spoke English to get anything done and the increasingly naked hostility from the c-suite about our value to the company.
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
The first trend of AI was "use as much as you can! You must use AI!!!". Hence the rise of tokenmaxxing leaderboards and KPIs on token use.
The second wave, happening right now, is "use it, but control cost". All the cool kid CEOs are now talking cost-control, rate limiting, and metering. If your management is a "follower" they are bound to hop on the trend.
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.
I went the opposite way - I worked for smaller companies before going into a big corpo.
I will say that the experience taught me a lot about working on a team and also the importance of understanding my own (and my coworkers) limits when it comes to actually implementing stuff. Very worthwhile even if I left with a bad taste in my mouth.
Not long ago I had a dream about becoming a butcher, and so then I bought half a cow with a friend and after a week trying to cut it out in pieces I realised maybe I was too old to make the move... so im still a programmer.
I worked in a grocery store meat department in high school. I wasn’t a butcher, my main job was wrapping the meat for the counter, weighing and pricing it, but over time I learned to do basic meat cutting, still nowhere near a full butcher but getting some basic experience.
Point is it’s an apprenticeship that takes years and starts with helping a butcher do low value stuff. Grabbing half a cow and trying to cut it up probably isn’t the best entry point or test of aptitude.
Imagine the reverse. A butcher buys a Linux computer and tries to become a programmer in a week. Struggles with getting nested loops to work, so quits.
Not saying you should be a butcher, but a week and no training is a difficult approach.
I think, to be honest, even with more training, I was already too old... A hindquarter is heavy as hell, I think I kind permanently busted my back just shuffling it around, nevermind cutting a shin bone...
I don't know... start smaller maybe. Homeostasis swings both ways and the body will adapt. Fwiw, I think it's worthwhile to explore a little more before "calling it" completely
Cows are heavy. Really heavy. And then after you've got things more or less sorted, you still need to know how to cut it in pieces, this is a lot of manual labor... It's painful slow if you dont know exactly where to cut, and you can spoil the meat if you dont know what you're doing... You need tools and you need to know how to use them... It's just a whole different world. Lets not even go on to actually killing the animal and cleaning it, or all that dance, which I have witnessed and its something else... bah! maybe in another life.
I have a family member who has been a butcher for nearly 40 years.. if you'd want some tips on this to try it again I'm sure he'd be willing to tell you how to go about it properly.
Some years ago, I got so sick of spending endless hours at my desk writing rspec automation tests that I suddenly had a strong urge to become a forest ranger.
I have a feeling you would spend a few weeks as a forest ranger. Then slowly you'd notice all the things you could optimise or automate. A few months later you would be working for the rangers IT department
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.
I just always had an interest into it. Cant explain much past that... I spend summers in a farm as a child and I guess I was always fascinated by the ritual of butchering animals, not the killing part particularly, the elegant splitting and portioning of an animal for storage and consumption.
Of course, then I just grew up and you just get on with things...
A recent comment on a thread here I can't remember mentioned someone quitting to become a diesel mechanic 5 years ago, I think that finally pushed me to seriously considering entering the trades. I think I always wanted to eventually, but could never make the jump when tech felt like a 'natural' environment to be a part of, that's increasingly just no longer the case and I don't feel welcome.
Not quitting just yet, but the culture is super toxic lately. Managers will promise things that are not feasible, set absurd deadlines, and then let engineers take the fall if they don't meet those deadlines. When engineers come up with good ideas, managers will say it's a bad idea, but then run away with the idea and take the credit.
I wake up every day wondering if I should quiet quit or go for a clean exit.
I had a co-worker like this. Management believed him over me when I complained. Go for a clean exit once you've found a new position. This toxic environment hurts your mental health more than you think.
most people are paid as full time salary employees, aka 35-40 hours/week. You may feel that you personally do way more work than everyone else (80%+ plus of people do) but you don't get to define what "the actual amount of work you are paid for" is. There's usually lots of opportunities to find time to learn or go on tangents in non-terrible jobs, but unless your boss is quiet quitting as well, they - and your coworkers - will know, and this will screw you far more in the future than just quiting and getting a new job.
You just shouldn't take anything too seriously. I used to resent being paid by the hour instead of based on deliverables.
But nowadays, in the current environment, I am extremely glad that I get paid hourly. It's a different skillset. There's a lot of acting and sometimes drama involved but thankfully I'm good at both engineering and acting... Also, I kind of like drama. Anyone who cares about their work, in this economy, is delusional (probably had it easy) and it's a matter of time before reality gets to them as it did to me and many others.
I feel kind of bad for colleagues who take their job too seriously though. I can feel their pain but I can't tell them to relax because I have to also act my part and pretend to feel passionate.
However, my real passion these days is money hitting my bank account. Puts a smile on my face. The less hard I worked, the happier I am. And I'm paid by the hour. So logically I need to create situations to maximize my lock-in factor, above all else.
If you can keep up the pretense for 2 years, then that's enough to keep you employed perpetually. So engineers should focus more on acting skills and other soft skills and less on technical stuff.
Look at all the people in management roles who made big money, none of them have technical skills. It's all about acting. If they built their entire career out of bullshit, surely I can build the second half of mine out of bullshit also! By the time I retire, I'd still have contributed more value than them!
Think about it all the time. Can’t stand how AI has made everyone at a company a pretend expert at everything and discussions are now just everyone’s AI responding back and forth to one other, and nobody seems to notice or care.
I quit because like many here I was totally unfulfilled with what I was doing day-to-day. Feeling like I'm wasting my life away for a (not even great) paycheck.
I was thrilled with the freedom and agency it brought me, and had a long list of things I wanted to do.
I went to see family and friends I hand't seen in a while, then took a multi-month trip in the mountains while reading, learning and programming whatever I wanted to.
Then had a baby, which wasn't planned, but turned into the most important and meaningful thing in my life.
Time went by, the market went down, AI, etc.
I started trying finding a job about a year in, and it's really tough. Even worse, everything I hated about work seems to be generally worse now everywhere.
Heh. Back in the 1970s, AD/Cycle was The Big New Thing that was going to make everything else obsolete. Fortunately, that was just a bit before I started, so I never had to worry about it, because it never did much of anything.
I feel like it was the dot com boom. :s/"Make everything online"/"Make everything use AI"/g
In a similar story, AI makes sense for some stuff but not other stuff. The stuff where it does not make sense for is gonna do bad when the bubble pops.
I quit in June. No real absurdity, I'd just spent two years after we were acquired feeling bad about leaving and abandoning everybody, or that's what I'd tell myself to not feel like a coward. Either way, out now, trying to balance curing burnout with a dozen personal projects and lots of well-intentioned, interesting people talking about new opportunities. I told people (my wife most pertinently) that my plan was to walk the dog a lot and not have a plan, but no lack of a plan survives contact with boredom. So, behold my thundering herd of shaven yaks: three screenplays, two TTRPGs (one CMS for TTRPGs that will do data-driven print layout for you), one video game, one piece of consumer electronics, slowly going through Lingua Latina. And I still feel like I have a lot of unfinished business in football analytics, which was the day job.
I don't really know what the right balance is now, but I'm having fun and generally much happier.
What a great and timely question! :) I quit a week ago to take a year-long sabbatical.
> 1. What pushed you to do it?
The pursuit of curiosity, for the most part. That's what makes quitting a lot harder when you have a good job and nothing to complain about: you feel like you're making a huge mistake on a whim. Doubly so when you consider the state of the job market at this time.
That said, we don't live to work; we work to live. It's a lot of risk and uncertainty, but you should remember that while some unknown bad things can happen in the future, unknown good things can happen too! [1] When you own your time, you increase your luck surface considerably: you have more opportunities to travel, to wander, to play, to meet new people, to tinker, to discover.
So I've been thinking and reading about this a lot. The final push came from two books I read: "The Pathless Path" by Paul Millerd [2] and "The Inner Compass" by Lawrence Yeo [3]. I can't recommend them enough.
> 2. What will you be doing? (Even if nothing!)
I have a huge Steam backlog to beat... :) Besides that, I'll be studying computer science and maths. Programming language theory, compilers, and functional programming are particularly close to my heart.
Still can't get work. I've pretty much given up working for anyone else building software. Had an offer on the table for good pay, rescinded after a credit check (gov't subcontractor, "potential insider threat" excuse; fishy happenings with primary contractor lead me to believe they had their own guy they wanted to install...)
I found a little job in education (no tech at all) that pays $22k/yr. That'll float the bills while I use my spare time to build other things. Got a couple dev boards (one SBC, one for that cheap TI component that came across HN a few days ago) to toy around with some little hardware ideas I have that maybe I could productize.
Grabbing a PD analyzer and an older M1 or M2 Mac to explore Asahi Linux and maybe start contributing in a few months.
I was just thinking a "Who is firing?" thread would be more informative than a "Who is hiring?" one in 2026+
That would make this one - "Who is quitting?" the more useful counter to "Who wants to be hired?" (because it's easier for candidates to get placed coming directly from another company rather than hiring someone unemployed).
The hiring manager becomes the firing manager - this is your new hiring pipeline... Or... firing pre-pipeline... wait now I'm confused
Sadly I'm tightly mortgaged and in a very high cost of living area in the US.
My plan is to move to Europe so I can cut my cost of living in half, not stress over health care, and eat real food instead of fake American chemicals. Need a few more years ..
In Spain I’m paying only 70 euro per month for the most expensive private healthcare plan. I don’t have public healthcare so I can’t compare but the private plan has been excellent. You get a private room at top clinics if something happens to you.
However rent here is literally more than minimum wage after taxes so that is something to consider.
If you want the best healthcare in the EU go to The Netherlands. Though food is meh over there, over 70% is ultra processed.
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 failure and move on.
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) .
Do you have lots of contacts in your industry? If so, consider solving their problems with existing tech for now. Most unloved corners of the physical economy will pay a give-a-darn premium to smart people who genuinely care about doing good work and satisfying their customers.
If it’s new tech or bust, build the most honest techno-economic model you can and use that to make your go/no-go decision.
I quit after almost five years at Stripe. Loved my team and manager but the product culture at the company were steadily going downhill and I wasn't building much. Honestly couldn't tell you what I was doing day to day but i was still sitting at my computer for 8 hours and feeling pretty unfulfilled. The direction of the company was also confusing and I kept getting pulled into its forays (its doing well but trying to get deeper into crypto). The tooling was also breaking a lot and became haphazard.
Trying to do something on my own now, maybe I'll reassess in the fall and ask for my job back or start looking around if this doesn't work. Its not really a "break" because I'm working a lot (maybe more than before) but I figured this is my window to try. Somewhat hoping big tech will always be there but if not i can make do with whatever I get as long its doesn't have a toxic culture.
I read these type of posts and wonder why someone would move away from such a deal. Maybe is a matter of age, as at 45 years old, I am very happy going to work in a monotone job, checkout at 5 and live my life.
Ive achieved everything I dreamt in my professional life: Got a PhD, got to be CTO, got to be Principal Engineer, got to build several products and companies from 0 to 1. I just want to be left alone.
Nowadays I enjoy being advisor of 3 or 4 early startups at a time. I love seeing the stamina and drive of the young 20+ folks that want to eat the world. I spent 25 years doing the same; but at 45, it's my priorities have changed a lot.
I appreciate your perspective. ultimately im going to start a family soon and I want to try my hand at starting something and building my skills since i felt like i was stagnating where I was at. I'm trying to build something in a totally separate industry and I think we might have our first few customers which is exciting! But not sure it'll pay the bills long term.
Also, I was still expected to produce work at stripe, the work was more like speculative or validation documents instead of building or maintaining systems. Of lot of work proposing things that never got built or adhoc supporting other teams. On top of that perf season was still tiring because i had to justify my existence even though I didn't really know what I was doing or how i was adding value. I got paid well while i was there and still hold my stripe stock but i wasn't really an engineer by the end of it.
I'm happy to retire at google when i have a few kids (if its still around) in like 10-15 years. Gotta shoot my shot while I have energy.
I quit over a year ago after burnout with a little bit of savings working in devrel and technical PM. Since then I went all in on scuba diving - became an instructor, maxed out open-circuit (OC) tec diving with 100m advance trimix dives, technical stage cave diving (OC), and most recently O2ptima CM Air Diluent CCR diving. I also got B2 certified in Indonesian.
After burning a hole in my pocket on diving gear and certs, I'm looking for my next fully remote devrel/dev-ed role so I can go CCR cave diving in a few years :D
Quit 10 years ago. In the meanwhile I tried building my own things, first few years have been poorly the last few have been great. Never give up people :)
Leaving at the end of the month; first time quitting (not jumping ships) in my career. It's a scary move.
I will be taking a short break and polishing some of my OSS projects.
I'm actually excited about the future of software right now. Currently interested in the field of applied AI/automation/robotics though I have zero credentials. If you're looking for a T-shaped engineer with strong UI and UX experience, let's talk :)
I’ve applied for several jobs outside of tech or only tech-adjacent. I’m not happy to give up significant income and benefits, but you don’t get everything you want.
What AI-first means for companies who are not actually AI companies is elevating staff with the right degree of _partiinost_ around AI and using vendor AI products to show how many Jira issues have been closed in pursuit of the latest exciting and important new transformation.
I'm thinking of quitting in January and moving to New Zealand (already have a visa) for a year then Ireland for a year.
Im definitely afraid of the state of the industry after 2 years of contracting work and breaking back in at my current salary (160k) since my goal is to retire early. The opportunity cost of a life well lived vs preparing myself to live a better life in 20+ years is a really difficult decision to make
To anyone reading this: don’t be afraid to make the move. It’s your life. It can feel scary before you do it, but once you finally quit, it’s not scary anymore.
I was in the exact same position. Don’t wait for something to change on its own, because it probably won’t. Make the change yourself and explore new opportunities. You’ll be glad you did.
I retired because I couldn't do it any more. After forty years, I no longer had the focus to keep "shoving my brain through concrete walls" for eight hours a day.
That's the immediate reason that I quit. But there's been this discontent that's been slowly building for several years. Maybe it's because of seeing too much management chaos and blundering, and then expecting the workers to sacrifice to make things work out. Maybe because it really sunk in how much management didn't actually care. Or maybe it was because of me - because I was slowly burning out and getting old and tired. But for whatever reason, it began to feel hollow - just going through the motions, rather than changing the world.
I just quit. A comically inept director who screamed at people and promotions given out for obsequiousness over impact. I'm guessing the second one will be more-or-less the same everywhere but I'd rather not deal with people I don't respect in the slightest.
Stroke too away sight in one eye
Americans with disability Act not helpful at work
All algorithmic knowledge wasted
out of work for a year so I gave up
quitted on 6/30.
Was working for 5 years as PO in autonomous driving. teams changed 3 times, France to US/Mexico/Europe to India. Each time start almost from scratch.
Now cooking for family and boot strapping 2 startups.
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 disappointed, but I didn't immediately quit.
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 while I worked there.
When I first interviewed, the CTO seemed like a nice and friendly guy, I didn't immediately see red flags. This was my first startup experience. I'll try to research things better if I decide to join one again. I might also just not join unless I can myself be a co-founder. Fuck reporting to incompetent twats.
Currently taking a sabbatical. I decided to take the summer off. I'm working on personal projects. Lucky enough to have good savings from a previous job so I can afford to do this. I'm planning to take gradual steps towards returning to work near the end of the summer.
That sounds like a tough realization to come to, and has been an opposite of my experiences in startups (as a non founder). Ive sought them out because the leadership cares so freaking much about what they are doing, and really genuinely wants to succeed. That can be intense, but at least you know they care. If you are early enough to have both equity and a solid chance at impacting the possibility of success you can have both mercenary and personal incentives aligned in a way that is impossible in a bigger company IMO.
I hope you give startups another go if that sounds good to you, and as you say, it sounds like you will be able to see the things you dont want at least. Good luck.
"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?
I've come to understand, talking to a friend who is also in the startup world, that there are some CEOs who run a "portfolio" of startups. It's pretty weird. I don't really understand why investors would put money in a company that only has a part-time CEO.
I salute the bravery of everyone in this thread. In my 25+ years of working in tech, the hiring market has never been worse, and it was really, really bad for a few years of that career. I know talented ex-coworkers who have been looking for a job for 2+ years and had to resort to stocking shelves at Home Depot while they kept trying. Right now, I don't think I would have the courage to even quit a job that I absolutely hated.
So, you people who are leaving without another job lined up, just chillin' at home: My admiration goes out to you. GL guys! You're braver than I.
commented directly above this before seeing it. I've always been bike-crazy but over the past ~year ridden A LOT including my first solo international bikepacking trip. My plan is to do something new in the fall but first enjoy a (too short) Canadian summer and riding NFLD => Maine in Sept.
Post covid many bike companies were in big financial trouble so new bikes cost less than used, but that's mostly resolved or the companies are just plain failing, so definitely look for a newish (aka few years old) used bike and you'll get a lot more for your money. Manufacturers are all pushing ebikes (with electric motorcycle specs) these days and now 32" wheels (don't get me started - and I'm 6'5") so depending on your planned riding and budget 29" HT or full-suspension mountain bike (off-road, trails, casual), or hybrid style / gravel (light off-road, commuting, touring). Focus on a known brand, quality basics (in the order of (frame, fork, wheels, drivetrain, brakes) and figure it out from there. Avoid cheap versions of ebikes, full suspension or carbon; there's typically good reasons for the price and usually you can't fix or upgrade them - although the Walmart Ozark Trail is a decent attempt (but still has major short-comings; you're better with something like a Polygon HT).
Nope the original poster, but check out gravel bikes. They’re essentially the geometry of a relaxed road bikes with massive tire clearance to make the rides more comfortable.
Lots of new bike tech, so depending on how old your “old” bike is. I would recommend going to stores and doing some test rides. Enjoy!
Simple Batavus analog bike. Don’t know the type. It’s an eleven speed and has disc brakes front and back that make a horrible noise when you come to a stop. Back one makes noisy because the bike leaks oil on the disc. No idea why the front one is noisy. A project for one day.
Enviolo stepless bicycle automatic transmission (never manually shift again, accelerate while continuously shifting under load), with a carbon fiber belt drive (maintainance free, silent, never get grease on your pants or hands again), and Bosch Performance Line mid-motor (strong zippy performance from the geniuses who paid a €90 million fine for Dieselgate), plus GPS tracker with "recovery service" (required for insurance).
It's a dream bike, optimized for comfort and city riding, but Koga is not available in the US, though.
Here's an American bike that has similar features (not as nice as the high-end Koga Evia Pro Automatic though), the Harley Davidson Rush/CTY (step through model is easiest to mount/unmount/ride):
The Enviolo Automatic also come in a heavy duty version paired with high performance motors for bakfiets (cargo bikes), for 3-4 children, big dogs, and groceries:
Fair, they're ideal for city bikes, stop-and-go traffic, and the flat Dutch landscape where they're produced, where the biggest "mountains" you encounter are the bridges over canals. Their city model has 310%, trekking 380%, and the new utility hub has 400% gear range, which you can use on a normal bike, bakfiets, or speed pedelec.
I've seen those belt driven CVTs and they don't seem like they have the gear range for my hilly area. Not interested in an ebike, I bike for recreation and fitness.
quit last year, bikepacked for a fee month in europe, and now after a toy project got hn-ed in december, built a real saas that pays the bills. pretty grateful to hn.
i quit after realising how ineffective it is to support a founder who stopped focusing on the product.
Quit about a month ago after working at my last place for two years. It was a decent job before the agent psychosis became widespread, from that moment everyone in the company went insane and the pressure to use "advanced agentic engineering" became unbearable. Also, most engineers in the company supported and were enthusiastic about that trend, so I was in a minority.
I don't have much savings on me, but I'd rather go frugal and downshift than be producing slop for a living.
I think about quitting every single day. I have too many little responsibilities running around the house in order to pull it off. Layoffs impacting us big time. Brain drain. Off shoring. 7,000 line PRs. 12 hour shift coverage. Project count tripling. Not sure how long I’ll make it before I have heart issues and become one of those late 40s guys who keels over and is forgotten by the company in 6 weeks. Stressful.
I quit last September and have been doing sporadic freelancing and intensely working on personal projects.
It was already clear to me last summer that the agentic stuff was kind of the final nail in the coffin of a "normal" software dev shop. All the routine of typical SCRUM-based etc activity was degrading even further from ritual and theater into a pointless charade or comedy, or as you say, absurdity. Dueling LLMs on the code reviews, people sitting around a conference room on laptops counting fantasy story points, getting Claude to write their annual self-assessments.
Unfortunately I still need to make money. I've done a couple freelance gigs. Some is less absurd than others. I'm sporadically interviewing to go full time again but I'm being extremely picky.
I quit last August for similar reasons, and lest everyone here think it's all amazing ICs vs. clueless managers, I was at the director level of a midsize company caught between the developers I deeply cared for and agentic madness pushed from the executives and my boss the CTO. I'm likely older than many here, but still too poor / young to retire and maybe it was a mistake, but I kind of feel like I didn't have a choice. I've made big contrarian (stupid?) moves before and they've worked out, so we'll see what's next. Over the past 11 months I've explored and worked with AI my way, and ridden a lot of bicycle.
In my previous job I was working in a boring old app, and all my attempts to modernise it were rejected. So I felt like this is not my project anyways.
And everything was hair-rippingly slow, asking external developers to implement a simple button was a nightmare of bureaucracy with jira tickets and meetings and reviews ugh.
And I’m coming from the indy hacker scene, I have always moved quickly and avoided unnecessary overhead. At home I was working on side projects and adding buttons was not even in my effort-radar, bc its so quickly done!
Then with ai getting good at coding + my experience I was able to ship so many projects and features, the slow progress at work became unbearable. I was wasting my time so badly there.
TLDR:
Maybe this is a new phenomenon, but I quit bc I can do much more alone while vibe coding. The opportunity cost of staying there was just too high.
Also: the models work much better during unemployed hours and I do so much more sports now, I love it!
Sure, but because work is something we spend so much time on, when workers can quit when the work feels meaningless or absurd, that's a good thing. We should aspire for a society where all workers can do that.
I’m making no comment about how things _should_ broadly be. Only that we should consciously appreciate how rare it is for quitting to be a practical, and non-ruinous, option.
It's not privilege, it was demanded by workers who fought hard to obtain it. We should be more conscious of this, if only to help stave off the constant attempts to erode what our ancestors gained for us.
We should all aspire to that, but by that measurement, a huge percentage of the population don't have "basic fiscal responsibility." I know exactly one person who could quit their job tomorrow and not have to change his lifestyle. It's extremely rare, and I think qualifies as "privilege."
To qualify this: yes I think anyone that can just walk away from this job because its tuesday and they don't like tuesdays is extremely privileged, there is no doubt. I was/am speaking purely from a financial perspective.
If one cannot live within their means and save up an emergency fund of ~6 months, I don't think that is unprivileged, that is just not responsible.
Can everyone do this? Probably not, life is hard. Have most people made a series of life decisions for which they not longer want to be culpable, instead complaining about how hard life is? Almost always. There are always edge cases, and reasons we need a solid social safety net, I advocate for social safety nets. Most people just spend too much money and bitch that they're paycheck-to-paycheck.
I’m in a similar situation. I’m just saying that I know a lot of people who work much harder than me, without anywhere near the same financial freedom. I think it’s good to meditate on that fact regularly.
Well yeah. We collectively figure out that the industry is toxic as hell and quit in large numbers. Then a year or two later, suddenly everyone's hiring with somehow even higher pay than the previous cycle because all the competent people have left and now the companies who tried negging us are on fire.
Maybe this time management will learn its lesson but probably not.
I think it's fine if a person (1) recognizes and appreciates the situation, and (2) can make it work without starving to death. There are a million examples of luxury in the first world and we're ignorant of most of them.
Quitting is a bad move. You should just quiet quit and start acting and don't take anything too seriously. Probably all your colleagues feel the same way anyway. Everyone is just hustling and bullshitting at this point. Everyone is laser focused on how to maximize their lock-in factor whilst putting in as little effort as possible. Because it's what works.
You can't avoid the bullshit unfortunately. Whatever company you join, it will be the same thing. If the company REALLY provided value, they would have gone bankrupt. There's no avoiding the bullshit. You must embrace it.
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.
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 wanted to do next.
Now I'm trying to focus on making money. I'm kind of out of money, so I'll likely need to do some freelance work for a while.
Soon I'm going to release something to help others do the same thing. Ship high-quality stuff quicker.
That sounds fascinating and I thought about doing similar, but as tech savy as I am to tackle every idea people throw at me, I am unable to come up with those ideas. Did you have a specific process to identify what your 25 projects to work on?
I pretty much kept a document of ideas. I would just randomly think of something and jot it down. The ideas I kept were exciting enough to keep coming back to and writing more down became what I built.
People have to know that it's not about money
Cash is not the way to make your life sunny
There is no need if you've got the soul seed
Love life and peace it can only begin
When you know in your heart sun shines from within
Love all your brothers and love all your sisters
Love all your misses and love all your misters
Don't be shy when you're sharing your kisses
'Cause jealousy gets boos and hisses
I was laid off in Q3 24. I knew it was coming because I had already been forced to take two weeks off from burnout when my brain just lost the ability to reason about code any more, so realistically it was a blessing. I decided that I wasn't going to even think about programming for at least a year, simply to let my brain heal.
It worked, I feel much better and started working on my own projects again, but now I feel like that gif from Community when Troy walks in with pizzas and the apartment is on fire. The state of the entire computing industry is strongly making me second guess if I want to continue in this career.
My wife and I are in a good enough place financially that I don't need to work for a long while, but... I dunno. There has to be a pretty significant course correction before I'm willing to enter those trenches again.
The sad thing is, this is the second time that my career of choice has evaporated out from under me (I was a projectionist in the 2000s). I don't know where I'm going to go from here.
I quit in '23. I didn't have F-U money (heck, I don't have running water) but I did inherit some money from my parents when they passed, enough to buy a shack on some land and to get my living expenses low enough that running sound and playing music could pay the bills.
I will note that I did quit before my parents passed on, mostly because my kids (I am 48 and had them young) had graduated college and I realized I wasn't going to make enough in my remaining working years to both buy a house where I want to live and fully retire.
So I quit and lived in my truck and did stage hand gigs that payed a better day rate than I got programming, even though they were only a couple of days a month.
I am in EMT school because I like to do first aid at festivals and support my local free clinic. One of my recording clients just left with the masters of his album he cut out at my off-grid, solar-powered recording studio.
In additions to the realizations about the reality of retirement, I just got tired of answer pages to reboot a server at 1am because my boss was to cheap to offload some containers to a second server.
Also, I enjoy programming (this last winter I re-learned C to work with ESP32), but watching the less-talented folks at the biz use it as a crutch to make ever cruftier, bug riddled stuff made me a little repulsed.
It didn't help that I was doing WordPress customization/hosting/troubleshooting for large institutional clients- for as much money as it made me, it is was still a towering pile of shit that required being able to really work all parts of the stack including layer-zero issues.
So here I am, Dale-Gribbling it up in the middle of nowhere, unemployed, unable to tell the difference between massive inflation and massive gains in my portfolio, sitting a rural shack in Colorado surrounded by a bunch of musical instruments.
Yall should quit while there is still time, if you can.
May I ask where in Colorado?
I quit last year and have just been chilling and working on side projects. The reason I left was because of mandatory RTO combined with a very steep decline in the engineering culture of where I worked.
Got tired of having to talk to like five different people who barely spoke English to get anything done and the increasingly naked hostility from the c-suite about our value to the company.
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
Wait a few months and you'll probably be okay.
The first trend of AI was "use as much as you can! You must use AI!!!". Hence the rise of tokenmaxxing leaderboards and KPIs on token use.
The second wave, happening right now, is "use it, but control cost". All the cool kid CEOs are now talking cost-control, rate limiting, and metering. If your management is a "follower" they are bound to hop on the trend.
Don't really want to wait. My company progressing forward with it despite the engineers' feedback is a clear signal I don't want to be here
I miss my PHP Hammer.
https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-php-singularity/
Perhaps Im a bit too dense the follow the analogy
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.
I went the opposite way - I worked for smaller companies before going into a big corpo.
I will say that the experience taught me a lot about working on a team and also the importance of understanding my own (and my coworkers) limits when it comes to actually implementing stuff. Very worthwhile even if I left with a bad taste in my mouth.
I don't work for big tech, but you have at least one more thing to show for than I do!
I quit recently too, typical reason: boss was being such a boss. My new bosses are way better
Not long ago I had a dream about becoming a butcher, and so then I bought half a cow with a friend and after a week trying to cut it out in pieces I realised maybe I was too old to make the move... so im still a programmer.
I worked in a grocery store meat department in high school. I wasn’t a butcher, my main job was wrapping the meat for the counter, weighing and pricing it, but over time I learned to do basic meat cutting, still nowhere near a full butcher but getting some basic experience.
Point is it’s an apprenticeship that takes years and starts with helping a butcher do low value stuff. Grabbing half a cow and trying to cut it up probably isn’t the best entry point or test of aptitude.
Imagine the reverse. A butcher buys a Linux computer and tries to become a programmer in a week. Struggles with getting nested loops to work, so quits.
Not saying you should be a butcher, but a week and no training is a difficult approach.
I think, to be honest, even with more training, I was already too old... A hindquarter is heavy as hell, I think I kind permanently busted my back just shuffling it around, nevermind cutting a shin bone...
I don't know... start smaller maybe. Homeostasis swings both ways and the body will adapt. Fwiw, I think it's worthwhile to explore a little more before "calling it" completely
Unless you're like 70 or crippled, you are able to train your deadlift to 300 pounds at the very least. Strength is not reserved for the young
While its not something I would like doing myself, what made it so difficult if I may ask?
Cows are heavy. Really heavy. And then after you've got things more or less sorted, you still need to know how to cut it in pieces, this is a lot of manual labor... It's painful slow if you dont know exactly where to cut, and you can spoil the meat if you dont know what you're doing... You need tools and you need to know how to use them... It's just a whole different world. Lets not even go on to actually killing the animal and cleaning it, or all that dance, which I have witnessed and its something else... bah! maybe in another life.
That makes sense, thank you for replying.
I have a family member who has been a butcher for nearly 40 years.. if you'd want some tips on this to try it again I'm sure he'd be willing to tell you how to go about it properly.
That's grand! thanks for offering!
There are schools. For example, in Bentonville AR I know the head butcher instructor at Brightwater. https://brightwater.nwacc.edu/
Some years ago, I got so sick of spending endless hours at my desk writing rspec automation tests that I suddenly had a strong urge to become a forest ranger.
I have a feeling you would spend a few weeks as a forest ranger. Then slowly you'd notice all the things you could optimise or automate. A few months later you would be working for the rangers IT department
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.
I just always had an interest into it. Cant explain much past that... I spend summers in a farm as a child and I guess I was always fascinated by the ritual of butchering animals, not the killing part particularly, the elegant splitting and portioning of an animal for storage and consumption.
Of course, then I just grew up and you just get on with things...
Can’t think of a worse time to go into beef production anyway
Good news! Thats the cow's job, not a butcher's.
A recent comment on a thread here I can't remember mentioned someone quitting to become a diesel mechanic 5 years ago, I think that finally pushed me to seriously considering entering the trades. I think I always wanted to eventually, but could never make the jump when tech felt like a 'natural' environment to be a part of, that's increasingly just no longer the case and I don't feel welcome.
Not quitting just yet, but the culture is super toxic lately. Managers will promise things that are not feasible, set absurd deadlines, and then let engineers take the fall if they don't meet those deadlines. When engineers come up with good ideas, managers will say it's a bad idea, but then run away with the idea and take the credit.
I wake up every day wondering if I should quiet quit or go for a clean exit.
I had a co-worker like this. Management believed him over me when I complained. Go for a clean exit once you've found a new position. This toxic environment hurts your mental health more than you think.
Quiet quit aka : do the actual amount of work you are are paid for and don't let yourself get ripped off due to 'pressures'.
most people are paid as full time salary employees, aka 35-40 hours/week. You may feel that you personally do way more work than everyone else (80%+ plus of people do) but you don't get to define what "the actual amount of work you are paid for" is. There's usually lots of opportunities to find time to learn or go on tangents in non-terrible jobs, but unless your boss is quiet quitting as well, they - and your coworkers - will know, and this will screw you far more in the future than just quiting and getting a new job.
The actual amount of work someone is paid for is the minimum amount of work that will not result in being fired.
Maybe we should start a support group.
There is one in your area. They meet at the bar down the street after work.
You just shouldn't take anything too seriously. I used to resent being paid by the hour instead of based on deliverables.
But nowadays, in the current environment, I am extremely glad that I get paid hourly. It's a different skillset. There's a lot of acting and sometimes drama involved but thankfully I'm good at both engineering and acting... Also, I kind of like drama. Anyone who cares about their work, in this economy, is delusional (probably had it easy) and it's a matter of time before reality gets to them as it did to me and many others.
I feel kind of bad for colleagues who take their job too seriously though. I can feel their pain but I can't tell them to relax because I have to also act my part and pretend to feel passionate.
However, my real passion these days is money hitting my bank account. Puts a smile on my face. The less hard I worked, the happier I am. And I'm paid by the hour. So logically I need to create situations to maximize my lock-in factor, above all else.
If you can keep up the pretense for 2 years, then that's enough to keep you employed perpetually. So engineers should focus more on acting skills and other soft skills and less on technical stuff.
Look at all the people in management roles who made big money, none of them have technical skills. It's all about acting. If they built their entire career out of bullshit, surely I can build the second half of mine out of bullshit also! By the time I retire, I'd still have contributed more value than them!
Think about it all the time. Can’t stand how AI has made everyone at a company a pretend expert at everything and discussions are now just everyone’s AI responding back and forth to one other, and nobody seems to notice or care.
I did. Now 3 years have gone by.
I quit because like many here I was totally unfulfilled with what I was doing day-to-day. Feeling like I'm wasting my life away for a (not even great) paycheck.
I was thrilled with the freedom and agency it brought me, and had a long list of things I wanted to do. I went to see family and friends I hand't seen in a while, then took a multi-month trip in the mountains while reading, learning and programming whatever I wanted to.
Then had a baby, which wasn't planned, but turned into the most important and meaningful thing in my life. Time went by, the market went down, AI, etc. I started trying finding a job about a year in, and it's really tough. Even worse, everything I hated about work seems to be generally worse now everywhere.
Not sure what to do.
There's always been absurdity though, right?
These are some I can think of or have witnessed since starting my dev career in 2010:
- 4GL business languages making developers redundant
- Big data
- Cloud computing
- DevOps
- LLMs
For those about to quit, I salute you.
I started my career in the mid-90s and 4GLs making all of us obsolete was already a thing by then!
Heh. Back in the 1970s, AD/Cycle was The Big New Thing that was going to make everything else obsolete. Fortunately, that was just a bit before I started, so I never had to worry about it, because it never did much of anything.
I think the fad that most closely aligned with current AI absurdity was mid-2000s outsourcing.
I feel like it was the dot com boom. :s/"Make everything online"/"Make everything use AI"/g
In a similar story, AI makes sense for some stuff but not other stuff. The stuff where it does not make sense for is gonna do bad when the bubble pops.
Definitely has always been some absurdity and I think there always will be. I think it only varies in the degree!
I quit in June. No real absurdity, I'd just spent two years after we were acquired feeling bad about leaving and abandoning everybody, or that's what I'd tell myself to not feel like a coward. Either way, out now, trying to balance curing burnout with a dozen personal projects and lots of well-intentioned, interesting people talking about new opportunities. I told people (my wife most pertinently) that my plan was to walk the dog a lot and not have a plan, but no lack of a plan survives contact with boredom. So, behold my thundering herd of shaven yaks: three screenplays, two TTRPGs (one CMS for TTRPGs that will do data-driven print layout for you), one video game, one piece of consumer electronics, slowly going through Lingua Latina. And I still feel like I have a lot of unfinished business in football analytics, which was the day job.
I don't really know what the right balance is now, but I'm having fun and generally much happier.
What a great and timely question! :) I quit a week ago to take a year-long sabbatical.
> 1. What pushed you to do it?
The pursuit of curiosity, for the most part. That's what makes quitting a lot harder when you have a good job and nothing to complain about: you feel like you're making a huge mistake on a whim. Doubly so when you consider the state of the job market at this time.
That said, we don't live to work; we work to live. It's a lot of risk and uncertainty, but you should remember that while some unknown bad things can happen in the future, unknown good things can happen too! [1] When you own your time, you increase your luck surface considerably: you have more opportunities to travel, to wander, to play, to meet new people, to tinker, to discover.
So I've been thinking and reading about this a lot. The final push came from two books I read: "The Pathless Path" by Paul Millerd [2] and "The Inner Compass" by Lawrence Yeo [3]. I can't recommend them enough.
> 2. What will you be doing? (Even if nothing!)
I have a huge Steam backlog to beat... :) Besides that, I'll be studying computer science and maths. Programming language theory, compilers, and functional programming are particularly close to my heart.
But, most importantly, enjoying life!
[1] https://moretothat.com/take-the-leap/
[2] https://pathlesspath.com/
[3] https://compass.moretothat.com/
Still can't get work. I've pretty much given up working for anyone else building software. Had an offer on the table for good pay, rescinded after a credit check (gov't subcontractor, "potential insider threat" excuse; fishy happenings with primary contractor lead me to believe they had their own guy they wanted to install...)
I found a little job in education (no tech at all) that pays $22k/yr. That'll float the bills while I use my spare time to build other things. Got a couple dev boards (one SBC, one for that cheap TI component that came across HN a few days ago) to toy around with some little hardware ideas I have that maybe I could productize.
Grabbing a PD analyzer and an older M1 or M2 Mac to explore Asahi Linux and maybe start contributing in a few months.
I was just thinking a "Who is firing?" thread would be more informative than a "Who is hiring?" one in 2026+
That would make this one - "Who is quitting?" the more useful counter to "Who wants to be hired?" (because it's easier for candidates to get placed coming directly from another company rather than hiring someone unemployed).
The hiring manager becomes the firing manager - this is your new hiring pipeline... Or... firing pre-pipeline... wait now I'm confused
Me, in my fantasies.
Sadly I'm tightly mortgaged and in a very high cost of living area in the US.
My plan is to move to Europe so I can cut my cost of living in half, not stress over health care, and eat real food instead of fake American chemicals. Need a few more years ..
In Spain I’m paying only 70 euro per month for the most expensive private healthcare plan. I don’t have public healthcare so I can’t compare but the private plan has been excellent. You get a private room at top clinics if something happens to you.
However rent here is literally more than minimum wage after taxes so that is something to consider.
If you want the best healthcare in the EU go to The Netherlands. Though food is meh over there, over 70% is ultra processed.
http://www.foodwatch.org/nl/pers/persberichten/persberichten...
Good luck, just remember (speaking as an European): the grass is always greener.
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 failure and move on.
Any advice?
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) .
Do you have lots of contacts in your industry? If so, consider solving their problems with existing tech for now. Most unloved corners of the physical economy will pay a give-a-darn premium to smart people who genuinely care about doing good work and satisfying their customers.
If it’s new tech or bust, build the most honest techno-economic model you can and use that to make your go/no-go decision.
Now you made me curious, do you mind sharing more?
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.
I quit after almost five years at Stripe. Loved my team and manager but the product culture at the company were steadily going downhill and I wasn't building much. Honestly couldn't tell you what I was doing day to day but i was still sitting at my computer for 8 hours and feeling pretty unfulfilled. The direction of the company was also confusing and I kept getting pulled into its forays (its doing well but trying to get deeper into crypto). The tooling was also breaking a lot and became haphazard.
Trying to do something on my own now, maybe I'll reassess in the fall and ask for my job back or start looking around if this doesn't work. Its not really a "break" because I'm working a lot (maybe more than before) but I figured this is my window to try. Somewhat hoping big tech will always be there but if not i can make do with whatever I get as long its doesn't have a toxic culture.
I read these type of posts and wonder why someone would move away from such a deal. Maybe is a matter of age, as at 45 years old, I am very happy going to work in a monotone job, checkout at 5 and live my life.
Ive achieved everything I dreamt in my professional life: Got a PhD, got to be CTO, got to be Principal Engineer, got to build several products and companies from 0 to 1. I just want to be left alone.
Nowadays I enjoy being advisor of 3 or 4 early startups at a time. I love seeing the stamina and drive of the young 20+ folks that want to eat the world. I spent 25 years doing the same; but at 45, it's my priorities have changed a lot.
I appreciate your perspective. ultimately im going to start a family soon and I want to try my hand at starting something and building my skills since i felt like i was stagnating where I was at. I'm trying to build something in a totally separate industry and I think we might have our first few customers which is exciting! But not sure it'll pay the bills long term.
Also, I was still expected to produce work at stripe, the work was more like speculative or validation documents instead of building or maintaining systems. Of lot of work proposing things that never got built or adhoc supporting other teams. On top of that perf season was still tiring because i had to justify my existence even though I didn't really know what I was doing or how i was adding value. I got paid well while i was there and still hold my stripe stock but i wasn't really an engineer by the end of it.
I'm happy to retire at google when i have a few kids (if its still around) in like 10-15 years. Gotta shoot my shot while I have energy.
I quit over a year ago after burnout with a little bit of savings working in devrel and technical PM. Since then I went all in on scuba diving - became an instructor, maxed out open-circuit (OC) tec diving with 100m advance trimix dives, technical stage cave diving (OC), and most recently O2ptima CM Air Diluent CCR diving. I also got B2 certified in Indonesian. After burning a hole in my pocket on diving gear and certs, I'm looking for my next fully remote devrel/dev-ed role so I can go CCR cave diving in a few years :D
Quit 10 years ago. In the meanwhile I tried building my own things, first few years have been poorly the last few have been great. Never give up people :)
What did you build ?
Leaving at the end of the month; first time quitting (not jumping ships) in my career. It's a scary move.
I will be taking a short break and polishing some of my OSS projects.
I'm actually excited about the future of software right now. Currently interested in the field of applied AI/automation/robotics though I have zero credentials. If you're looking for a T-shaped engineer with strong UI and UX experience, let's talk :)
I’ve applied for several jobs outside of tech or only tech-adjacent. I’m not happy to give up significant income and benefits, but you don’t get everything you want.
What AI-first means for companies who are not actually AI companies is elevating staff with the right degree of _partiinost_ around AI and using vendor AI products to show how many Jira issues have been closed in pursuit of the latest exciting and important new transformation.
I'm thinking of quitting in January and moving to New Zealand (already have a visa) for a year then Ireland for a year.
Im definitely afraid of the state of the industry after 2 years of contracting work and breaking back in at my current salary (160k) since my goal is to retire early. The opportunity cost of a life well lived vs preparing myself to live a better life in 20+ years is a really difficult decision to make
Yep! I just did. I’m leaving this July.
To anyone reading this: don’t be afraid to make the move. It’s your life. It can feel scary before you do it, but once you finally quit, it’s not scary anymore.
I'm thinking about it every day
I was in the exact same position. Don’t wait for something to change on its own, because it probably won’t. Make the change yourself and explore new opportunities. You’ll be glad you did.
Not this month. I retired in February.
I retired because I couldn't do it any more. After forty years, I no longer had the focus to keep "shoving my brain through concrete walls" for eight hours a day.
That's the immediate reason that I quit. But there's been this discontent that's been slowly building for several years. Maybe it's because of seeing too much management chaos and blundering, and then expecting the workers to sacrifice to make things work out. Maybe because it really sunk in how much management didn't actually care. Or maybe it was because of me - because I was slowly burning out and getting old and tired. But for whatever reason, it began to feel hollow - just going through the motions, rather than changing the world.
I just quit. A comically inept director who screamed at people and promotions given out for obsequiousness over impact. I'm guessing the second one will be more-or-less the same everywhere but I'd rather not deal with people I don't respect in the slightest.
Got fired. I’ve no idea what I’ll do after 10 years of backend dev. I’m thinking of making video games. It looks rough but I want to do it.
Stroke too away sight in one eye Americans with disability Act not helpful at work All algorithmic knowledge wasted out of work for a year so I gave up
quitted on 6/30. Was working for 5 years as PO in autonomous driving. teams changed 3 times, France to US/Mexico/Europe to India. Each time start almost from scratch. Now cooking for family and boot strapping 2 startups.
Throwaway. Software person here. Quitting current job in a few weeks.
1. Leadership, culture, and (development) process changes; I've been looking casually for over a year and finally got something.
2. New company, same role, but should be much more amenable and stable.
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 disappointed, but I didn't immediately quit.
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 while I worked there.
When I first interviewed, the CTO seemed like a nice and friendly guy, I didn't immediately see red flags. This was my first startup experience. I'll try to research things better if I decide to join one again. I might also just not join unless I can myself be a co-founder. Fuck reporting to incompetent twats.
Currently taking a sabbatical. I decided to take the summer off. I'm working on personal projects. Lucky enough to have good savings from a previous job so I can afford to do this. I'm planning to take gradual steps towards returning to work near the end of the summer.
That sounds like a tough realization to come to, and has been an opposite of my experiences in startups (as a non founder). Ive sought them out because the leadership cares so freaking much about what they are doing, and really genuinely wants to succeed. That can be intense, but at least you know they care. If you are early enough to have both equity and a solid chance at impacting the possibility of success you can have both mercenary and personal incentives aligned in a way that is impossible in a bigger company IMO.
I hope you give startups another go if that sounds good to you, and as you say, it sounds like you will be able to see the things you dont want at least. Good luck.
"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?
I've come to understand, talking to a friend who is also in the startup world, that there are some CEOs who run a "portfolio" of startups. It's pretty weird. I don't really understand why investors would put money in a company that only has a part-time CEO.
SpaceX, Tesla, and X have entered the chat....
My heart goes out to you.
I salute the bravery of everyone in this thread. In my 25+ years of working in tech, the hiring market has never been worse, and it was really, really bad for a few years of that career. I know talented ex-coworkers who have been looking for a job for 2+ years and had to resort to stocking shelves at Home Depot while they kept trying. Right now, I don't think I would have the courage to even quit a job that I absolutely hated.
So, you people who are leaving without another job lined up, just chillin' at home: My admiration goes out to you. GL guys! You're braver than I.
Already did. Hated working with AI. Will try to start a business one day where I can code how I like it.
Currently not doing anything IT related. Just went on a bike ride.
commented directly above this before seeing it. I've always been bike-crazy but over the past ~year ridden A LOT including my first solo international bikepacking trip. My plan is to do something new in the fall but first enjoy a (too short) Canadian summer and riding NFLD => Maine in Sept.
What are you riding these days? Do you like it? I'm shopping to replace my old beginner bike
Post covid many bike companies were in big financial trouble so new bikes cost less than used, but that's mostly resolved or the companies are just plain failing, so definitely look for a newish (aka few years old) used bike and you'll get a lot more for your money. Manufacturers are all pushing ebikes (with electric motorcycle specs) these days and now 32" wheels (don't get me started - and I'm 6'5") so depending on your planned riding and budget 29" HT or full-suspension mountain bike (off-road, trails, casual), or hybrid style / gravel (light off-road, commuting, touring). Focus on a known brand, quality basics (in the order of (frame, fork, wheels, drivetrain, brakes) and figure it out from there. Avoid cheap versions of ebikes, full suspension or carbon; there's typically good reasons for the price and usually you can't fix or upgrade them - although the Walmart Ozark Trail is a decent attempt (but still has major short-comings; you're better with something like a Polygon HT).
Nope the original poster, but check out gravel bikes. They’re essentially the geometry of a relaxed road bikes with massive tire clearance to make the rides more comfortable.
Lots of new bike tech, so depending on how old your “old” bike is. I would recommend going to stores and doing some test rides. Enjoy!
Simple Batavus analog bike. Don’t know the type. It’s an eleven speed and has disc brakes front and back that make a horrible noise when you come to a stop. Back one makes noisy because the bike leaks oil on the disc. No idea why the front one is noisy. A project for one day.
Enviolo stepless bicycle automatic transmission (never manually shift again, accelerate while continuously shifting under load), with a carbon fiber belt drive (maintainance free, silent, never get grease on your pants or hands again), and Bosch Performance Line mid-motor (strong zippy performance from the geniuses who paid a €90 million fine for Dieselgate), plus GPS tracker with "recovery service" (required for insurance).
https://enviolo.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQrgKBQrkag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xY2S-9gjHI
https://www.koga.com/en/enviolo-gear-hub
https://www.koga.com/en/bikes/e-bikes/evia-pro-automatic?fra...
It's a dream bike, optimized for comfort and city riding, but Koga is not available in the US, though.
Here's an American bike that has similar features (not as nice as the high-end Koga Evia Pro Automatic though), the Harley Davidson Rush/CTY (step through model is easiest to mount/unmount/ride):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SjN8RN9g7Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoX9S5UhETE
https://serial1.nl/
The Enviolo Automatic also come in a heavy duty version paired with high performance motors for bakfiets (cargo bikes), for 3-4 children, big dogs, and groceries:
https://batavus.com/en-nl/products/fier-3-bbfn3
https://www.dw.com/en/bosch-pays-90-million-euro-fine-over-d...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal
Edit:
Fair, they're ideal for city bikes, stop-and-go traffic, and the flat Dutch landscape where they're produced, where the biggest "mountains" you encounter are the bridges over canals. Their city model has 310%, trekking 380%, and the new utility hub has 400% gear range, which you can use on a normal bike, bakfiets, or speed pedelec.
https://enviolo.com/news/enviolo-launches-the-utility-hub/
I've seen those belt driven CVTs and they don't seem like they have the gear range for my hilly area. Not interested in an ebike, I bike for recreation and fitness.
quit last year, bikepacked for a fee month in europe, and now after a toy project got hn-ed in december, built a real saas that pays the bills. pretty grateful to hn.
i quit after realising how ineffective it is to support a founder who stopped focusing on the product.
Quit about a month ago after working at my last place for two years. It was a decent job before the agent psychosis became widespread, from that moment everyone in the company went insane and the pressure to use "advanced agentic engineering" became unbearable. Also, most engineers in the company supported and were enthusiastic about that trend, so I was in a minority.
I don't have much savings on me, but I'd rather go frugal and downshift than be producing slop for a living.
I think about quitting every single day. I have too many little responsibilities running around the house in order to pull it off. Layoffs impacting us big time. Brain drain. Off shoring. 7,000 line PRs. 12 hour shift coverage. Project count tripling. Not sure how long I’ll make it before I have heart issues and become one of those late 40s guys who keels over and is forgotten by the company in 6 weeks. Stressful.
I quit last September and have been doing sporadic freelancing and intensely working on personal projects.
It was already clear to me last summer that the agentic stuff was kind of the final nail in the coffin of a "normal" software dev shop. All the routine of typical SCRUM-based etc activity was degrading even further from ritual and theater into a pointless charade or comedy, or as you say, absurdity. Dueling LLMs on the code reviews, people sitting around a conference room on laptops counting fantasy story points, getting Claude to write their annual self-assessments.
Unfortunately I still need to make money. I've done a couple freelance gigs. Some is less absurd than others. I'm sporadically interviewing to go full time again but I'm being extremely picky.
I quit last August for similar reasons, and lest everyone here think it's all amazing ICs vs. clueless managers, I was at the director level of a midsize company caught between the developers I deeply cared for and agentic madness pushed from the executives and my boss the CTO. I'm likely older than many here, but still too poor / young to retire and maybe it was a mistake, but I kind of feel like I didn't have a choice. I've made big contrarian (stupid?) moves before and they've worked out, so we'll see what's next. Over the past 11 months I've explored and worked with AI my way, and ridden a lot of bicycle.
I’m using a throwaway for this.
In my previous job I was working in a boring old app, and all my attempts to modernise it were rejected. So I felt like this is not my project anyways.
And everything was hair-rippingly slow, asking external developers to implement a simple button was a nightmare of bureaucracy with jira tickets and meetings and reviews ugh.
And I’m coming from the indy hacker scene, I have always moved quickly and avoided unnecessary overhead. At home I was working on side projects and adding buttons was not even in my effort-radar, bc its so quickly done!
Then with ai getting good at coding + my experience I was able to ship so many projects and features, the slow progress at work became unbearable. I was wasting my time so badly there.
TLDR:
Maybe this is a new phenomenon, but I quit bc I can do much more alone while vibe coding. The opportunity cost of staying there was just too high.
Also: the models work much better during unemployed hours and I do so much more sports now, I love it!
What an utterly privileged life we lead when we can just decide to quit our jobs because things are getting too “absurd”.
Sure, but because work is something we spend so much time on, when workers can quit when the work feels meaningless or absurd, that's a good thing. We should aspire for a society where all workers can do that.
I’m making no comment about how things _should_ broadly be. Only that we should consciously appreciate how rare it is for quitting to be a practical, and non-ruinous, option.
It's not privilege, it was demanded by workers who fought hard to obtain it. We should be more conscious of this, if only to help stave off the constant attempts to erode what our ancestors gained for us.
My spouse and I both work. We also live so far within our means that either one of us could quit tomorrow and our lifestyle would not change.
Is that privilege? I consider it basic fiscal responsibility.
We should all aspire to that, but by that measurement, a huge percentage of the population don't have "basic fiscal responsibility." I know exactly one person who could quit their job tomorrow and not have to change his lifestyle. It's extremely rare, and I think qualifies as "privilege."
Yeah, a huge percentage don't.
To qualify this: yes I think anyone that can just walk away from this job because its tuesday and they don't like tuesdays is extremely privileged, there is no doubt. I was/am speaking purely from a financial perspective.
If one cannot live within their means and save up an emergency fund of ~6 months, I don't think that is unprivileged, that is just not responsible.
Can everyone do this? Probably not, life is hard. Have most people made a series of life decisions for which they not longer want to be culpable, instead complaining about how hard life is? Almost always. There are always edge cases, and reasons we need a solid social safety net, I advocate for social safety nets. Most people just spend too much money and bitch that they're paycheck-to-paycheck.
I’m in a similar situation. I’m just saying that I know a lot of people who work much harder than me, without anywhere near the same financial freedom. I think it’s good to meditate on that fact regularly.
Well yeah. We collectively figure out that the industry is toxic as hell and quit in large numbers. Then a year or two later, suddenly everyone's hiring with somehow even higher pay than the previous cycle because all the competent people have left and now the companies who tried negging us are on fire.
Maybe this time management will learn its lesson but probably not.
Sure and what is the issue of that? Myself and those close to me have worked very hard so I can be confortable in life
I think it's fine if a person (1) recognizes and appreciates the situation, and (2) can make it work without starving to death. There are a million examples of luxury in the first world and we're ignorant of most of them.
Isn't this how it should be? To have the freedom to not tolerate (and to not encourage) bullshit "added value" companies, rent-seeking parasites ...
If you literally can't quit your job, that's called slavery, you realize that?
Kinda sounds like "not slavery" with extra steps
You might be factually correct about the privileged part, but if you think about it, it's simply a privilege to not be a slave of capitalism...
Careful now, you mustn't upset the cult of the job creator.
Quitting is a bad move. You should just quiet quit and start acting and don't take anything too seriously. Probably all your colleagues feel the same way anyway. Everyone is just hustling and bullshitting at this point. Everyone is laser focused on how to maximize their lock-in factor whilst putting in as little effort as possible. Because it's what works.
You can't avoid the bullshit unfortunately. Whatever company you join, it will be the same thing. If the company REALLY provided value, they would have gone bankrupt. There's no avoiding the bullshit. You must embrace it.
"lock-in factor"?
I quit because our product had become little more than a funnel directing people to gambling sites, and everyday working on it felt gross.
I’m working on my passion project, a mobility focused fitness app (bendy.fit), and searching for work that doesn’t feel morally repugnant!
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.
You mean Ask HN: Who wants to be fired?
Considering this is a thread for people in the process of quitting, I believe Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice" has an apt retort:
"You can't fire me because I quit! Throw me in the fire and I won't throw a fit."
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 wanted to do next.
Now I'm trying to focus on making money. I'm kind of out of money, so I'll likely need to do some freelance work for a while.
Soon I'm going to release something to help others do the same thing. Ship high-quality stuff quicker.
That sounds fascinating and I thought about doing similar, but as tech savy as I am to tackle every idea people throw at me, I am unable to come up with those ideas. Did you have a specific process to identify what your 25 projects to work on?
I pretty much kept a document of ideas. I would just randomly think of something and jot it down. The ideas I kept were exciting enough to keep coming back to and writing more down became what I built.
That sounds intriguing. Did any of those 25 projects make money?
Can you go back and monetize them if you haven’t already?
I did, and I've made money from channel surfer, but it's far from paying the bills, kind of money.
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?
I believe it means that he has the privilege to save amount of money, do what he wants and later on go back to the industry in a good position.
Remember that there are people who never had the opportunity to study or lives in a precarious situation.
They were priviliged before and only now know how that feels because they aren't anymore