Throwaway

Throwaway for obvious reasons. I've spent the last year planning my exit strategy. I moved to somewhere with a lower cost of living. I lowered my expenses. I prepared to live on a fraction of my income. Then I quit my job as a Principal Software Engineer for a major tech company. They offered me a promotion, I said no. I have zero plans of ever getting another job in this industry. I love coding. I love making software. I love solving complex problems. But I hate the industry and everything it's become. It's 99% nonsense and it manufactures stress solely for the sake of manufacturing stress. It damages people, mentally. It's abusive. I'm sick of leetcode. I'm sick of coding interviews. I'm sick of everyone being on Adderall. I'm sick of wasting time writing worthless tests. I'm sick of fixing more tests than bugs. I'm sick of endless meetings and documents and time tracking tools. I'm sick of reorgs. I'm sick of how slow everyone moves. I'm sick of the corporate buzzwords. I'm sick of people talking about nebulous bullshit that means absolutely nothing. I'm sick of everyone above middle management having the exact same personality type. I'm sick of worrying about everyone's fragile ego. I'm sick of hissy fits. I'm sick of arrogance. I'm sick of political games. I'm sick of review processes that encourage backstabbing. I'm sick of harassment and discrimination. I'm sick and I'm tired. And now I don't have to deal with it anymore. I've never felt happier. It's as if I've been freed from prison. I won't discourage anyone from pursuing a career in software, but I will encourage everyone who does to have an exit plan from day one. One day, you'll realize that you're rotting from the inside out. Edit I wasn't expecting this many responses, so I'll answer some questions here. I'm in my early 40's and I've been doing this since college. I didn't get a large sum of money, I simply moved to a small place in a small town where I'll be taking a part time job working outdoors. I was living in a tech center with a high cost of living. I've worked at 7 companies, including Microsoft and Amazon. The startups were much nicer, but they become more corporate over time. Finding a good company culture is mostly luck, and I'm tired. ​