I’ve been doing this twenty years, and to be honest, I’m loving it more now than I ever have before. It’s been a flywheel for me, the more experience I get, the more confident I get, the harder problems I get to work on, and accomplish them better. There are challenges sure, but what is disillusioning you?

I don’t know if this is a distinction worth making, but I’ve never really thought of my relationship as to the industry, it’s to the work, and I’ve always loved the work.

I am not personally and have never really considered it. The industry has its ups and downs but I guess I've been fortunate enough to mostly experience the positives. And above all, computers and technology are still my passion, so I'm not sure what other field I would even switch to.

Kind of. I’m transitioning to something a little more biochemistry-oriented but I expect to be employing a lot of my tech skills

But yeah I hated being an SWE. 90% of my career’s projects consisted of reinventing the spreadsheet and 90% of my time was spent listening to people bikeshedding about the color of buttons. The direction of the industry is less relevant to my choices

I’m sure my new course will feature similar motifs of redundancy and soul-sucking pedantry, but I’ll give it a decade like I did software and move on to career #4 if I tire

Yep. But there are personal economic factors which allow me to consider it more seriously. I do find it less interesting than when I was in my 20s.

No

no.

We are just seeing a bubble popping in slow motion.

[dead]