This is very insightful. I never really considered the fact that I was crushing cans on the way up but it is definitely true. I've been tacking towards "out of

This is very insightful. I never really considered the fact that I was crushing cans on the way up but it is definitely true. I've been tacking towards "out of management" for a few years and it is not easy. Taking a "step down" is hard but only because of my own petty status-seeking and I've gotten past that. What I can't figure out is the salary problem. There are some developers who can get paid as well as I do, but not any in my industry where developers are a pure cost-center - I don't work in a software company. Changing industry with 7 year old tech skills (aside from open-source and side-projects) without taking a huge salary cut is impossible.