Ask HN: Would you quit your +200K/y job to try the entrepreneurial route?

It depends. Are you a programmer? Do you have a family? How old are you? What skills do you have? How good is your idea? Do you have backing money, if not what is your plan to raise it? Are you aware of how incredibly hard it is to make money?

I think I'll do the same in a year's time. I'll do my own thing for a few months full time, and see how it goes. At the same time, I also plan on buying a house and renting it out, for the property I'm interested in, that will be a cash-flow neutral proposition. In the past 2 years, I've saved enough to live for 4 years. I think I'll spend some of the savings on hiring freelancers over the internet rather than convincing someone to quit, because this is a project I want to build, rather than a project for profit generation and I don't intend to lose other people's money on a project whose aim isn't to make money. My job's salary starts with a 1 rather than a 2.

At some point I realised I work to live. I don't live to work. And living means doing the things I want to do, working should only be a means to achieve that.

This sounds more like burnout and, to some degree, boredom.

I've been there twice now, in the last 5 years. I've been lucky to have someone talk about the underlying desire to quit with me. I've also been unlucky enough to just quit and join a startup.

Instead of outright quitting, can you take 1 month off? Can you take 2 months off? Can you take some unpaid leave that's several months long for "mental health"?

Let's assume you can only take a month off, that's actually plenty of time to answer your question based on your own situation. Spend the first couple of weeks traveling or doing something that does not involve entrepreneurship or tech, just go enjoy the world for a bit, even it just means spending all that time sitting on the beach and reading books.

Spend the next two weeks working through your idea, either building a prototype or networking to meet potential cofounders or doing customer development or whatever.

Then when you go to work, really think about how to carve out enough time for yourself.

I really want to reiterate that this sounds way too much like burnout. Please be careful and consider taking some time first, just to clear your head and to think, before you just quit.

It is not rational to quit, seems more of an emotional decision which you aim to rationalize (justify). A rational decision: pay a tiny portion of your 200k to someone else to build the prototype. Do the same to try to sell it. There should be a ton of programmers out there just as good as you are that can deliver a good product. Meanwhile, running this on-the-side-startup might take some of the emotional pressure off, give you fresh air and motivation. I am talking from experience, now I have two companies: the consultancy work (which mostly I dislike but pays the bills) and the startup that takes a little of my time to steer, it's fully staffed, self-funded and it's walking into its 3rd year of profits (which are now enough to pay half the bills). Think rational and controlled transition, not jumping into the void. Also, I did get to program some of the code on the startup so it was fun and distracting!

I'm in the same boat, same job for a long time... it started out fun hammering away late at night to get this prototypes working to please investors and then reworking new features keep me going. However the work has shifted into maintenance mode and micromanagement crippled my passion. I've been doing some research in the evening since Xmas break and I'm priming myself to go this year. I'm paid a comfortable amount with decent savings, mortgage, wife and kid and their support. I'd say go for it.

> Would you guys do it?

Nope. I'd find a way to do it in my off time. You say you're too busy with work, so get less busy with work.

If I couldn't do that, I don't think I'd quit a 200k/year job until I had enough to retire, although my view on that is probably drastically different from yours. I'd work on the side project after that.