How to Know When It's Time to Go

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Burnout vs. Being “Done” with Programming

  • Many distinguish temporary burnout from a deeper sense of being finished with the field.
  • Signs of being “done”: mind no longer drifting to code, loss of curiosity, dread rather than challenge, feeling work is unimportant.
  • Some argue money is the practical differentiator: if you’re financially dependent, you’re “burned out”; if independent, you’re simply “done.”
  • Others say only time and reflection make the difference clear.

Love of Coding vs. Hate of the Job

  • Numerous comments: still love writing code or solving problems, but dislike corporate reality—tickets, ceremonies, KPIs, politics, and “bullshit around it.”
  • Scrum/Agile is often criticized as ceremony-heavy, meta-planning that slows work and displaces real design.
  • Hiring (whiteboard/LeetCode), on-call, and tech-churn are major turnoffs, pushing some toward freelancing, semi-retirement, or personal projects.

Age, Ability, and Experience

  • Several older developers (40s–70s) report being sharper or more effective thanks to experience, even if raw recall is slower.
  • Others describe seniors who coast, resist change, or underperform, showing age ≠ ability in either direction.
  • Many feel experience is undervalued and ageism is real, yet niche or regulated domains (e.g., mainframes, medical devices) still value deep expertise.

Technology Cycles and Skill Bets

  • Debate around Java’s future: some see it as “new COBOL” (stable, maintenance-heavy, less exciting); others emphasize its ongoing evolution and strength.
  • Kotlin is cited as a good modern bet; Rust seen as oversupplied but potentially valuable longer-term.
  • Several note that many “new” ideas (containers, WASM, RPC, async, NoSQL, monorepos, SSR, Tailwind-style CSS) are rebranded versions of older concepts.

Economics, Retirement, and Strategy

  • A few high earners plan to quit by 50 and view working past that as unnecessary; others push back that such pay is rare globally.
  • Cost of living and lifestyle, not just salary, dominate early-retirement feasibility.
  • Some pursue “partial retirement”: intense contracting for part of the year, or 2–4 day weeks, keeping coding as a enjoyable, optional activity.

Meaning and When to Leave

  • Common heuristic: if the struggle consistently outweighs the enjoyment, it’s time to change roles, companies, or fields.
  • Many redirect skills into domains they care about (art, robotics, teaching, small tools) once corporate work stops being satisfying.