Have you ever come close to quitting software?

Legit question, have you ever been on the edge of leaving for another path?

Disclaimer to my co-workers: I'm just curious, nothing more 😋

Comments

[Nathan Glover]

Everytime my builds fail and I assume it's the universe telling me I should pack up and start a kitten sweater knitting business.

[Si]

You should definitely start a kitten sweater knitting business.

[Ben Halpern]

...That kitten sweater knitting business could probably use a website. 😬

[Si]

Ben's volunteering!

[Stephen Belovarich]

There is enough toxicity to make me consider cashing out the 401k, selling almost everything and moving to Alaska where I buy a plot of land, build a cabin and ride out global warming.

I’d live off the land. It would be hard, very hard. But there would be no one. Just me, the timber I’m felling, nature. A bear could eat me if I’m not careful. After awhile I’d settle into that lifestyle. I’ll walk through the landscape I helped cultivate and witness the land being subdivided around me. Plot after plot being sold off to anyone with enough money because Kansas became a dust bowl last year.

I don’t know if I would totally leave to be honest. It’s not in my nature. Instead, I would start a company whose values and practices were beyond reproach. That’s just how I am. Alaska seems like a nice option though.

[Oliver]

I actually did. Twice.

I was such a psychological mess after my first year, I went back to my old career.

I quit my second job barely two months in after one of my bosses interjected my rubber-ducking on Slack with: "I'm not paying you to understand things." Again, I went back to my old career.

Still, I'm drawn to software. I do apply for jobs occassionally but my motivation is purely financial.

[Patrick Charles-Lundaahl]

Wow... I'm really glad you quit. No one deserves bosses that incompetent.

[Ben Sinclair]

I'm always on the edge of it, I just can't get another job that pays as well, and I need money to eat.

[Ben Halpern]

What's causing this?

[Ben Sinclair]

Causing me to want to quit?

It's just a series of jobs where I have no real input into the work that I do beyond the very fine details. I can research and find what contrib module to use for project X and write an API to spec for project Y, but I can't say I'd like to use a different platform or suggest much else.

My work varies so little that I'm cornered using languages I don't enjoy and getting no experience that would set me up for a better job.
I don't code outside work very much anymore, and I never thought I'd become that person, but it means I don't learn anything relevant to new technologies.

I also really don't like a lot of the newer technologies.

Jack's job in The Shining is my idea of an ideal career, but I've left it to late to do anything except work payday to payday.

[Patryk]

I came really close to quitting vim, once. Didn't quite make it.

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The serious answer though, no. Would gladly change some things, i.e. move from PHP to Python and some JavaScript, but I don't see myself working with anything other than computers.

[Corey McCarty]

No. I can't forget how excited and in love I was when I was able to stop waiting tables and start working in this field.

[Seanmclem]

Yeah, before I got started and shortly after. I thought so much about quitting, and I'm so glad I never did