Technology

And this is why I never turned my passion and hobby into a job.

Yeah, I still need quite a bit more money but absolutely feeling the same thing, at least when I engage in generic terms.

So far in my actual day to day job, it hasn't encroached in a unwelcome way, but I have more autonomy by being in charge of the project I work on. Pressure in the abstract has been there, but also pulled back since they decided slop-heavy usage is too expensive.

So this article is actualy why I'm allowing myself to be a little optimistic that I won't feel the crushing weight of wanting to just get out of the whole industry, if the general mindset swings toward being frugal about AI token usage.

oh, mid-40 front end webdev here, i resigned this summer and i'm never looking back, moving into pastry. I haven't touched my computer since mid september, all i do is whatever can be done on my phone or ipad (mostly entertainment, social and artistic activities).

Find a hobby or even many hobbies! its very important to stay busy and also connected to others or you'll fall into depression. I've seen it happen. Volunteer somewhere where you interact with others. I say this as someone who's been out of work 5 years and took the "bad" path to depression and watched many retires wither do to lack human connection and over all lethargic tendencies

Use or lose it is very real for anything humans do...

So get into exercise, get into FOSS, interact with people!

Outside is pretty cool too.

Everyone I've seen retire at 40 ends up drinking every day from midday and watching game shows for hours on end.

Point being, find something else to focus on or you'll drift.

And enjoy!

Make sure your retirement is not in the hands of any banks or retirement funds.

They will all go belly up in case the bubble bursts.

Man so envious of that, I'm just a bit younger and I can't retire like that.

I will be sailing my job until they fire me. Don't know what will happen next but maybe I can find something that's more down to earth with my local community and still brings some joy.

good ending, took too long maybe

Congrats on your retirement!, I also just pulled the trigger myself. I think industry managers will need to see AI fail for a few years before they wake the eff up around where to use it and how to control it. Its like we are using horse reins on cars lately. The problem is that AI makes very compelling demos. It lets you fill in the blanks with what looks like an instant, high functioning product. You dont initially see the long tail of mediocrity and imprecision. We are used to just assuming tech products are consistent, endlessly iterable, and user friendly.

It is useful, I'll give it that. But.. we are barely doing code reviews anymore though, which is terrifying. Exec says invest in extra scoping an extra testing, and ignore the software creation part, let AI do its thing and trust it. May work. May not. My replacement will find out, poor bastard. Good luck to them.

I "retired" (fancy way of saying "was laid off") from programming seven years ago and I haven't written a line of code since. I'm happy to have completely missed out on the AI experience, although since I spent the last few years of my career mostly managing a team of offshore developers, I feel like I got close enough. Now I own my own small house and I drive a school bus and I couldn't be happier. At some point AI will be driving the school buses (so that the kids can still go to school and have AI do all their work for them) but hopefully I will have died a painless death by then.

Fair. I have been a Linux hobbyist for decades. Up until being replaced by AI a year or two ago, I worked tech support and tech billing/contract roles for infrastructure and software giants. I have zero interest in perpetuating purportedly legal but sketchy billing schemes, using or selling AI, or enabling any foreign (or local) genocides or surveillance states with my work. I'd rather make less money and have my ethics a little less shattered.

The main reasons I work are to learn new skills and to get health insurance and money. I can learn skills on my own, I'm doing okay on money because my hobbies are mostly free or pay me a little bit. It's mostly the threat of financial destitution, homelessness, and dying in a gutter because I caught a cold without health insurance that have kept me working full time, even when my freelancing was a big portion of my income. If we can solve the healthcare issue, everything will change for the better. I truly believe that.

man i'm like a couple years behind ya. could you tell me the ballpark of what you're retiring on so i can be envious :D