Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

No regrets. If I'm in a state of regret, I transmute it to 'lessons learned' and move forward. We either treat regret like a teacher, or wallow in self-pity.

I became interested in machining, and took a job making gears because it seemed interesting. The financials changed, and I was trapped in it. In 2020, I got Covid, a mild case... but then Long Covid has removed me completely from the workforce.

I have tons of regrets, mostly unrelated to the above. I'm still programming and tinkering in my copious free time, with what energy I have.

The gear making job was interesting, and tiring, but I didn't worry about it 24x7 like my IT Admin job. When you left for the day, you were done. Bonus is that you had made something that could be used potentially for a hundred years or more. The downsides were the pay and the commute were both horrible.

I worked on circuit boards mostly. One day I noticed a kind of buzzing in my guts, like an overloaded inductor. A couple of weeks later I noticed it again.

The buzzing got louder and louder. I needed to stay in my job long enough to fulfill electrical registration requirements, so I left the same day my ticket came through.

It might be something about the electricity that f's me up with computers. I do know I keep much better health away from them.

I'm writing this on a phone - for some reason that doesn't hurt so badly.

I can design algorithms, write stories, investigate questions in Physics or Chemistry etc quite well - for as long as I don't try to do it with a computer.

As for now, I find I'm better off, in myself, doing quieter work.

salary cap