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Posted by PinkG 5 hours ago

I am retiring from tech to live offline(openpath.quest)
565 points | 394 commentspage 4
thisisauserid 3 hours ago|
I'm so offline I announce my offlineness to the internet.
k310 4 hours ago||
I retired to the country, where any friends are 50 miles away, and most don't even reply to emails and messages.

I still want to utilize some free wikis and such to help share ideas.

There are simple things that can improve life for people, especially seniors, that are very low tech, and that's the rub.

Low tech things mean taking action, getting away from the screen, where SO WE THINK, magic happens when we create some new fantabulous code gizmo.

Maybe just bringing a pizza to someone, inventing some gadget to read invisible labels and expiry dates on food, or making an exoskeleton for someone with back pain will do more good than some AI that writes exciting posts on social media, or better, counters some other AI that is coming for your money and creative mind.

We are all overthinking everything, when simple, human problems are neglected in some race to an unknown "endpoint" that is illusory and ever-moving.

procaryote 2 hours ago||
Best of luck to him, I hope he finds what he's looking for!

What's not completely clear from the post is what he dislikes with AI / technology. Does someone know?

rootsudo 4 hours ago||
It is amusing and depressing to see so many people exit tech. I remember this happened in similar “vibes/strides around 08 and then for Covid, which ironically doubled down on remote work. And now for AI.

It really paints a projection on how much time we all really have in this world and this segment of work.

At best I wonder, do “I” have another 10 - 15 years left in tech?

Do you?

Agreed with the other comments on financial freedom. It does feel that tech is one of the last bastions remaining where you can really solidify being an autodidact to have an exit of your choosing.

JackMorgan 3 hours ago||
I read somewhere that the average developer only has 7 years of experience. This should be a fairly sobering warning to anyone getting into tech that you should be saving every penny and planning your next career move. I know so many people who have burned out, gotten so stale they can't find work, or both. I've been in the industry for 19 years now and so few of my former coworkers are still in the field. I never planned I'd make it this far, so I'm making hay while the sun shines.
officialchicken 3 hours ago||
The problem isn't tech, it's the management/executive layer behind the firehose of VC bullshit and the consultant class of MBAs allowing decision making without consequence. We need to step up and kick all of these idiots out of the industry - not step or shy away. They're expecting techies to be soft and not to confront them using word games. Be as elitist and forward as you need to survive - but I plan on spending the next decade fiercely attacking the cancer... "Show me the money - or shut the fuck up". I can easily act more impatient than they can.
rootsudo 3 hours ago||
You’re not wrong, but an MBA helped me understand management better and “bridge the gap” between tech and management.

There is often a disconnect between both sides.

While anyone can learn the language of business, an MBA helps in understand their side, by teaching how executives think, evaluate risk, and make decisions.

A respected MBA also provides credibility, making it easier to translate technical ideas into business outcomes and gain support from leadership, etc etc etc.

The real value isn’t the mba itself, but learning to operate in both worlds. There is so much gray and fun things to can do once you see and can communicate both sides.

Tech-management arbitrage. That layer you describe is just talking another language, that most people in tech just don’t know. They also control the money.

Waterluvian 4 hours ago||
I dream of being the Zamboni driver for my town's arena. I have a plan I'm successfully executing to get to be that before I'm 50.

The hardest part will be beating all the competition for the job.

ern_ave 4 hours ago|
There's no such thing as a zomboni roomba?
qsxfthnkp2322 2 hours ago||
I f*** hope not.

People want to drive the Zamboni. It’s one of the coolest jobs out there.

jordemort 3 hours ago||
I am very lucky to be ensconced right now within a team and a company that views the current LLM mania with a similar level of disdain as myself. I'm not sure there's a place for me anywhere else in the industry right now. I wish I had the resources to wander off like this.
stereosteve 2 hours ago||
This is great. I’ve been thinking to set up an HF radio rig to talk to friends and strangers that are real people. Maybe the LLMs flood the internet with enough trash and we go back to more voice comms
ethagnawl 3 hours ago||
This really resonates. I'm a dev/sysadmin/whatever with 15+ years of experience and I've been seriously considering applying for a job at my local Tractor Supply.

I've been having trouble finding consistent work for the last year but was recently accepted into a recruitment network. Almost every posting on the network's job board is for AI/agentic bullshit (many of them in defense contexts) and I just can't bring myself to apply for any of them. I won't be able to fake the required enthusiasm. I've been through 4/5/6? hype cycles over the course of my career and I'm just over it all. Maybe the AI bubble will burst? Maybe it won't? Either way, it takes the fun out of what I've enjoyed doing -- even if it's because it's all anyone wants to talk about. Layer all of the surveillance* and age verification crap on top of that and ... I want off this train.

*Anecdote: I was a chaperone on an elementary school field tried yesterday and there were >8 cameras on the bus. This amount of surveillance and accompanying normalization of it hasn't prevented or even helped rectify multiple incidents my child has had while riding on school buses. So, all of the downsides and no upsides.

chasd00 4 hours ago|
i got 9.5 years. 9.5 years and then I'm finally climbing off the stage, picking up my tips, and my dancing days are over. i'm counting it down.
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