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by Raed667 1865 days ago
90% of the developers I know want to quit and start some sort of restaurant. [0]

There is a mythical imagery about working with food, setting your own shop, owning your hours. Clearly diametrically opposed to the 9-to-5 grid, the open-space and the weekly 1:1s with a manager.

Similar to that, there is also a recurrent opposition of urban-life vs. rural-life; painting the countryside as more fulfilling.

It appears to me that you're dissatisfied and disillusioned with the grind, (and so am I). But, I honestly don't think that a drastic change of scenery will magically make things better.

For me, the eye-opening moment was when I realized its not the "software-development industry" that I have issues with, it was the entire modern capitalistic "grind".

I don't have solutions for you, but I think a starting point is to realize that your problems are not individual, but collective and your experience is shared. However, I can suggest reading "The Coming Insurrection" by The Invisible Committee.

[0] Biased sample, and maybe slightly exaggerated number.

2 comments

After reading Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential (and before), there's no way I'd like to do this working 20 hours a day and little chance of making a profit...only dedicated passionate workaholics really succeed in catering whereas all sorts of people can succeed in software!
A friend of mine bought a cafe once, it's a common trope that people want to start these kinds of businesses, and it almost always ends in tears both financially and emotionally.

I don't recommend it, unless you are a hugely passionate chef and willing to put in big hours at big risk.