[ctvo]

Where do you live now? If I had to do this I'd do the following:

- Move to 2nd tier, lower cost of living city. My hidden gem: Chicago. Public transit, plenty of housing, culture, arts, #1 food city in the US, international airport with flights everywhere, half the housing cost and 3/4th other expenses as NYC and SF. 2nd option is Philadelphia for the same reasons and proximity to NYC for the weekend trips or to go into the office.

- Take a pay cut working at a financial, industrial, retail company as a cog while enjoying a stable 9-5. Lots of options remote and local with the resume you have.

- Work on side projects, hobbies. Decompress.

I wouldn't worry about your skills with "real world" tech stacks. It's straight forward to pick up.

Edit: I know calling one of the largest cities in the US a hidden gem is odd, but tech and Chicago / Philly? Not often considered.

[conqrr]

Weather and Crime are the biggest cons. That being said the city and transportation is really well planned compared to other major US cities. I don't think this solves OPs issues. OP wants to remain at an L4/L5 position and not do the TeamLead responsibilities but make similar pay. I think this is still possible in few niches of companies which grow slowly or research divisions. Bloomberg, Salesforce (pre 2023, its completely Uturned now) come to mind.

[cosmodisk]

I had a look at some properties in Chicago. Obviously no idea how good or bad the areas are,but the housing prices made me jealous when I compared to what we could buy for the same money in Lithuania.

[highhedgehog]

meaning lithuania is more expensive than Chicago?

[cosmodisk]

For instance: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1312-W-87th-St-Chicago-IL...

And then:

https://m.en.aruodas.lt/namai-kaune-romainiuose-pakarkles-g-...

[krab]

A lot of places in central/eastern Europe are more expensive than a city like Chicago. The example from Zillow in the sibling thread would be about 3x as expensive in Prague, CZ which has lower salaries in general.

[schnebbau]

That sounds appealing... apart from the weather in those cities. Would anyone care to recommend similar but warmer?

[roland35]

Miami or Atlanta also have some software industry

[McMinneapolis]

Nashville, Austin Tx, Raleigh NC... Search for smaller companies in college towns..

[mezeek]

chicago #1 food city, come on lol

[ctvo]

I live in NYC. Chicago is the #1 food city in America in my opinion:

- availability

- quality

- diversity

Others agree:

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/chicago-restaurant-city-of-... (a little bias here’s another one: https://travel.usnews.com/rankings/best-foodie-destinations-...)

You can do a quick search for more recent opinions.

NYC has more top end, famous restaurants. Chicago has more close to top end restaurants that you can easily get a reservation for. Measured by dimensions like # of Michelin stars, Chicago is only behind NYC and SF. It’s ahead LA for example.

[netllama]

"close to top end restaurant" is purely subjective, and meaningless. Sorry, but Chicago doesn't have the diversity, quality or quantity of restuarants that NYC has. Not even remotely close. Chicago has certainly come a long way from the days of meat & potatoes, but its no where in the same league as NYC. And the fact that its easy to get reservations only further underscores how non-competitive Chicago is in that regard.

[giaour]

NYC's food scene is great, but when I lived there (circa 2015) the only Mexican food available was confined to a few blocks of 116th ST in East Harlem, whereas Chicago had Rick Bayless.

[ctvo]

It’s not just staples like Mexican food: there isn’t great Vietnamese, Thai, and options for other cultures too. There’s barely passable Korean food in Korea town. It’s commercialized tourist goop. I’m talking Manhattan, gentrified Brooklyn, and LIC here.

Having Japanese and a handful of decent Chinese places != diverse.

I’ve lived in NYC for 10 years. I’ve looked.

Here’s the breakdown of where to go to get authentic, good non-tourist food:

An hour+ to get to different parts of Queens for decent Korean, Chinese, Mexican options.

Three hours to get to Northern VA for Vietnamese food (or 2 for Philly).

1-2 hours to get to New Jersey to get decent Indian food.

Yes, NYC has great sushi that costs 500 per person. Again, that doesn’t make it the #1 food city in America.

[giaour]

> Three hours to get to Northern VA for Vietnamese food (or 2 for Philly).

That's where I live now, and while I love the ready access to great banh mi, I do have to go to NYC to get a good babka. No place is perfect, I guess

[Spooky23]

Nailed it.

Whenever someone goes on about Manhattan food that isn’t a food truck, i eye-roll. The good stuff is indeed in Queens or even Jersey.

[water554]

Oh Chicago! They love white folk in Chicago :D