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I was a software engineer for about 10 years. Now I’m a furniture maker and occasional finish carpenter. Worked at Twitch as an early-ish employee, we got acqu

I was a software engineer for about 10 years. Now I’m a furniture maker and occasional finish carpenter. Worked at Twitch as an early-ish employee, we got acquired by Amazon. Made it to Principal Engineer and just got tired of the sorts of problems that are hardest in software at scale: project management, building consensus, migrating systems. Also got really tired of the wastefulness of software: so much software gets thrown out in under 5 years. Stuff that lasts 10 years is considered extraordinary, and 20 years is almost unheard of. I don’t like knowing how ephemeral all the effort is. Maybe one day we will know how to make good software but we dont today. So I want to make “permanent” stuff. Nothing meets that bar but furniture and carpentry can at least manage a few hundred years. I totally love it and don’t miss my old career at all. The pay is way worse but I saw this coming and saved well while I was paid the insane software salaries that are common today. I am on my feet, more fulfilled, and find the mental effort is actually much higher - the problem solving is more interesting to me. Mostly though I am just much more proud of what I make and do.

livinglist 5y ago
> Also got really tired of the wastefulness of software: so much software gets thrown out in under 5 years. Stuff that lasts 10 years is considered extraordinary, and 20 years is almost unheard of. Whenever I think of this while working on my personal open source projects, I become a little bit unmotivated, cuz in the end it will be rendered useless, so why the heck should I spend my time on something that’s not gonna last long….
- turtleyacht 5y ago
  You'll have projects to update, refine, and maybe even rewrite, on your own time and your own circumstances. At least better than lacking projects and only thinking of starting them :) As well, a maintainer may come along and preserve it.

livinglist 5y ago

> Also got really tired of the wastefulness of software: so much software gets thrown out in under 5 years. Stuff that lasts 10 years is considered extraordinary, and 20 years is almost unheard of. Whenever I think of this while working on my personal open source projects, I become a little bit unmotivated, cuz in the end it will be rendered useless, so why the heck should I spend my time on something that’s not gonna last long….

turtleyacht 5y ago
You'll have projects to update, refine, and maybe even rewrite, on your own time and your own circumstances. At least better than lacking projects and only thinking of starting them :) As well, a maintainer may come along and preserve it.