New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Burned out and almost financially independent. What to do next?
Ask HN: Burned out and almost financially independent. What to do next?
5 by deanmoriarty | 4 comments on Hacker News.
Hi I am 34yo, have worked 10 years in high demanding tech/finance companies (both startups and large companies) as a software engineer. For the most part, I didn’t enjoy the corporate world. My last stint is particularly grueling, I work 70 hours a week in a fire dumpster and am severely burned out. Reflecting more deeply on my experience, the root of all issues is that I didn’t like any of my bosses, and I’ve had several. The feeling of being owned, constantly pushed and pressured to deliver for irrelevant deadlines, and having to take orders is just something not in my nature. I think it might be some sort of inherited trait. My father, who has been a very small solo entrepreneur his entire life, used to say “I had opportunities in the corporate world that would have made me 10x more successful, but I wouldn’t trade my independence for anything else in the world“. Growing up it felt incredibly silly to hear that, and I remember making fun of him for the "lost" opportunities, now I get it. I am trying to understand what I can do in life to insulate myself from people who can control me and make me feel miserable. Having always had this goal of independence in mind, through luck and aggressive savings I amassed $3M in liquid net worth (nearly all in index funds, no TSLA here), and my spending is low, at $40k a year (excluding employer-subsidized healthcare). I just need to figure out what to do next. I feel I still have value to bring to this world, but, having been a corporate soldier my whole life, I have become so conditioned to being just a highly functioning cog in a big machine, that I have no idea what I could do. If I close my eyes and dream, I see myself having a solo online business (not consultancy though) that I can conduct while living a slow-travel lifestyle around the world, staying in one or two places a year. However, I cannot think of a single business idea that I could pursue on my own, my skills are heavily specialized in backend development/SRE, and again I severely lack ideas. No plan on ever having kids or getting married, and my partner is supportive of any decision I take.
5 by deanmoriarty | 4 comments on Hacker News.
Hi I am 34yo, have worked 10 years in high demanding tech/finance companies (both startups and large companies) as a software engineer. For the most part, I didn’t enjoy the corporate world. My last stint is particularly grueling, I work 70 hours a week in a fire dumpster and am severely burned out. Reflecting more deeply on my experience, the root of all issues is that I didn’t like any of my bosses, and I’ve had several. The feeling of being owned, constantly pushed and pressured to deliver for irrelevant deadlines, and having to take orders is just something not in my nature. I think it might be some sort of inherited trait. My father, who has been a very small solo entrepreneur his entire life, used to say “I had opportunities in the corporate world that would have made me 10x more successful, but I wouldn’t trade my independence for anything else in the world“. Growing up it felt incredibly silly to hear that, and I remember making fun of him for the "lost" opportunities, now I get it. I am trying to understand what I can do in life to insulate myself from people who can control me and make me feel miserable. Having always had this goal of independence in mind, through luck and aggressive savings I amassed $3M in liquid net worth (nearly all in index funds, no TSLA here), and my spending is low, at $40k a year (excluding employer-subsidized healthcare). I just need to figure out what to do next. I feel I still have value to bring to this world, but, having been a corporate soldier my whole life, I have become so conditioned to being just a highly functioning cog in a big machine, that I have no idea what I could do. If I close my eyes and dream, I see myself having a solo online business (not consultancy though) that I can conduct while living a slow-travel lifestyle around the world, staying in one or two places a year. However, I cannot think of a single business idea that I could pursue on my own, my skills are heavily specialized in backend development/SRE, and again I severely lack ideas. No plan on ever having kids or getting married, and my partner is supportive of any decision I take.
