I’m not sure why this is interesting. Wealthy people often retire early, and if you’ve spent three decades at Microsoft, you likely could have retired a very long time ago.

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JohnFen a day ago | parent | next [-]

Most of the older devs I know aren't in the industry primarily for the money. Their wealth level may not be a large factor in their decision about whether or not to leave early. The ones I know who are leaving (including myself) are doing so because the industry has changed in ways they are not comfortable with.

	▲	dofm a day ago \| parent [-]
		> The ones I know who are leaving (including myself) are doing so because the industry has changed in ways they are not comfortable with. The AI doom-trolling (h/t Cal Newport) of the big two firms is so utterly disreputable, shameful and absurd that everyone has lost their heads, and with long enough perspective it's possible to see that this is going to go on for another couple of years. I am past my half-century and currently trying to get back into things after a period of devastating burnout, but figuring out all this stuff from the perspective of a freelancer, without falling into the traps being laid, is challenging. I would like to get out of the industry but I don't really know to where, yet. The only reassuring thing is that outside of the IT world, people are proving more resilient to AI marketing than we are.

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idleplant a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think there's some level of interest in that tech jobs are fairly cushy (can work from home several days a week, benefits are good) and most older SWEs usually have more of a passion for the field. There's also maybe more of a culture nowadays of continuing to work at least part-time through typical retirement age to keep your mind active.

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znpy 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Wealthy people often retire early, and if you’ve spent three decades at Microsoft

Eh, it really depends on whether your wealth has creeped into your lifestyle, as well as if you have a family and have set roots into an expensive city.

I live a decently frugal life and would not mind much going back to eating beans+rice on even days and rice+beans on the odd ones, but a lot of people get into very expensive habits and interests as soon as they start earning a bit more.

	▲	fragmede 17 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The hedonic treadmill as well documented. If you can't help yourself by flying privates and having a yacht, I'm sorry, but that's on you. If you need to work more, you need to work more but with stock price appreciation, you may not need to go back quite to rice and beans level, just don't develop a habit for eating at Michelin star, restaurants.