[deanmoriarty]

I did not feel forced out, actually management tried to convince me to stay with a pretty compelling counter offer. I knew I was stuck in a rot of most coworkers and management seeing me as this “brilliant but unapproachable authority”, and I wanted to start fresh in a new place with humbleness. Much easier to do in a new company.

I know what you mean and I have seen other people being managed out of the company with smiles, via gradual marginalization and removal of responsibilities.

If I had to guess why that happened to them is because they were “more jerk, less brilliant”, in my case it was slightly the opposite as my contributions happened to be really significant for that company.