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Ask HN: Who is quitting? (July 2026)

1 points by ethanwillis ↗ HN
There's a lot of absurdity in this industry right now. I'm curious if anyone else who has the ability to do so is quitting this month.

If so I'm curious:

  1. What pushed you to do it?

  2. What will you be doing? (Even if nothing!)

154 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 67.2 ms ] thread
poolnoodle
I'm thinking about it every day
oriolgfarssac
I was in the exact same position. Don’t wait for something to change on its own, because it probably won’t. Make the change yourself and explore new opportunities. You’ll be glad you did.
tcp_handshaker
You mean Ask HN: Who wants to be fired?
Longlius
Considering this is a thread for people in the process of quitting, I believe Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice" has an apt retort:

"You can't fire me because I quit! Throw me in the fire and I won't throw a fit."

retired
Already did. Hated working with AI. Will try to start a business one day where I can code how I like it.

Currently not doing anything IT related. Just went on a bike ride.

malfist
What are you riding these days? Do you like it? I'm shopping to replace my old beginner bike
16mb
Nope the original poster, but check out gravel bikes. They’re essentially the geometry of a relaxed road bikes with massive tire clearance to make the rides more comfortable.

Lots of new bike tech, so depending on how old your “old” bike is. I would recommend going to stores and doing some test rides. Enjoy!

skeeter2020
Post covid many bike companies were in big financial trouble so new bikes cost less than used, but that's mostly resolved or the companies are just plain failing, so definitely look for a newish (aka few years old) used bike and you'll get a lot more for your money. Manufacturers are all pushing ebikes (with electric motorcycle specs) these days and now 32" wheels (don't get me started - and I'm 6'5") so depending on your planned riding and budget 29" HT or full-suspension mountain bike (off-road, trails, casual), or hybrid style / gravel (light off-road, commuting, touring). Focus on a known brand, quality basics (in the order of (frame, fork, wheels, drivetrain, brakes) and figure it out from there. Avoid cheap versions of ebikes, full suspension or carbon; there's typically good reasons for the price and usually you can't fix or upgrade them - although the Walmart Ozark Trail is a decent attempt (but still has major short-comings; you're better with something like a Polygon HT).
DonHopkins
Enviolo stepless bicycle automatic transmission, with a carbon fiber belt.

https://enviolo.com/

https://www.koga.com/en/enviolo-gear-hub

https://www.koga.com/en/bikes/e-bikes/evia-pro-automatic?fra...

It's a dream bike, optimized for comfort and city riding, but not available in the US, though.

Here's an American bike that has similar features, the Harley Davidson Rush/CTY:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SjN8RN9g7Y

https://serial1.nl/

They also come in heavy duty versions paired with high performance motors for bakfiets (cargo bikes), for 3-4 children or big dogs:

https://batavus.com/en-nl/products/fier-3-bbfn3

malfist
I've seen those belt driven CVTs and they don't seem like they have the gear range for my hilly area
retired
Simple Batavus analog bike. Don’t know the type. It’s an eleven speed and has disc brakes front and back that make a horrible noise when you come to a stop. Back one makes noisy because the bike leaks oil on the disc. No idea why the front one is noisy. A project for one day.
skeeter2020
commented directly above this before seeing it. I've always been bike-crazy but over the past ~year ridden A LOT including my first solo international bikepacking trip. My plan is to do something new in the fall but first enjoy a (too short) Canadian summer and riding NFLD => Maine in Sept.
Edd314159
What an utterly privileged life we lead when we can just decide to quit our jobs because things are getting too “absurd”.
jagged-chisel
Isn't this how it should be? To have the freedom to not tolerate (and to not encourage) bullshit "added value" companies, rent-seeking parasites ...
hnfong
You might be factually correct about the privileged part, but if you think about it, it's simply a privilege to not be a slave of capitalism...
malfist
Careful now, you mustn't upset the cult of the job creator.
pron
Sure, but because work is something we spend so much time on, when workers can quit when the work feels meaningless or absurd, that's a good thing. We should aspire for a society where all workers can do that.
Edd314159
I’m making no comment about how things _should_ broadly be. Only that we should consciously appreciate how rare it is for quitting to be a practical, and non-ruinous, option.
irishcoffee
My spouse and I both work. We also live so far within our means that either one of us could quit tomorrow and our lifestyle would not change.

Is that privilege? I consider it basic fiscal responsibility.

Edd314159
I’m in a similar situation. I’m just saying that I know a lot of people who work much harder than me, without anywhere near the same financial freedom. I think it’s good to meditate on that fact regularly.
ryandrake
We should all aspire to that, but by that measurement, a huge percentage of the population don't have "basic fiscal responsibility." I know exactly one person who could quit their job tomorrow and not have to change his lifestyle. It's extremely rare, and I think qualifies as "privilege."
irishcoffee
To qualify this: yes I think anyone that can just walk away from this job because its tuesday and they don't like tuesdays is extremely privileged, there is no doubt. I was/am speaking purely from a financial perspective.

If one cannot live within their means and save up an emergency fund of ~6 months, I don't think that is unprivileged, that is just not responsible.

Can everyone do this? Probably not, life is hard. Have most people made a series of life decisions for which they not longer want to be culpable, instead complaining about how hard life is? Almost always. There are always edge cases, and reasons we need a solid social safety net, I advocate for social safety nets. Most people just spend too much money and bitch that they're paycheck-to-paycheck.

antihipocrat
It's not privilege, it was demanded by workers who fought hard to obtain it. We should be more conscious of this, if only to help stave off the constant attempts to erode what our ancestors gained for us.
witx
Sure and what is the issue of that? Myself and those close to me have worked very hard so I can be confortable in life
ctenb
If you literally can't quit your job, that's called slavery, you realize that?
test6554
Kinda sounds like "not slavery" with extra steps
Longlius
Well yeah. We collectively figure out that the industry is toxic as hell and quit in large numbers. Then a year or two later, suddenly everyone's hiring with somehow even higher pay than the previous cycle because all the competent people have left and now the companies who tried negging us are on fire.

Maybe this time management will learn its lesson but probably not.

skeeter2020
I think it's fine if a person (1) recognizes and appreciates the situation, and (2) can make it work without starving to death. There are a million examples of luxury in the first world and we're ignorant of most of them.
pelagicAustral
Not long ago I had a dream about becoming a butcher, and so then I bought half a cow with a friend and after a week trying to cut it out in pieces I realised maybe I was too old to make the move... so im still a programmer.
smt88
Can’t think of a worse time to go into beef production anyway
malfist
Good news! Thats the cow's job, not a butcher's.
wabbawabbe
While its not something I would like doing myself, what made it so difficult if I may ask?
pelagicAustral
Cows are heavy. Really heavy. And then after you've got things more or less sorted, you still need to know how to cut it in pieces, this is a lot of manual labor... It's painful slow if you dont know exactly where to cut, and you can spoil the meat if you dont know what you're doing... You need tools and you need to know how to use them... It's just a whole different world. Lets not even go on to actually killing the animal and cleaning it, or all that dance, which I have witnessed and its something else... bah! maybe in another life.
wabbawabbe
That makes sense, thank you for replying.
poly2it
What inspired you to attempt pursuing butchery?
pelagicAustral
I just always had an interest into it. Cant explain much past that... I spend summers in a farm as a child and I guess I was always fascinated by the ritual of butchering animals, not the killing part particularly, the elegant splitting and portioning of an animal for storage and consumption.

Of course, then I just grew up and you just get on with things...

c_hastings
Imagine the reverse. A butcher buys a Linux computer and tries to become a programmer in a week. Struggles with getting nested loops to work, so quits.

Not saying you should be a butcher, but a week and no training is a difficult approach.

pelagicAustral
I think, to be honest, even with more training, I was already too old... A hindquarter is heavy as hell, I think I kind permanently busted my back just shuffling it around, nevermind cutting a shin bone...
butlike
I don't know... start smaller maybe. Homeostasis swings both ways and the body will adapt. Fwiw, I think it's worthwhile to explore a little more before "calling it" completely
eudamoniac
Unless you're like 70 or crippled, you are able to train your deadlift to 300 pounds at the very least. Strength is not reserved for the young
ethanwillis
I have a family member who has been a butcher for nearly 40 years.. if you'd want some tips on this to try it again I'm sure he'd be willing to tell you how to go about it properly.
andy99
I worked in a grocery store meat department in high school. I wasn’t a butcher, my main job was wrapping the meat for the counter, weighing and pricing it, but over time I learned to do basic meat cutting, still nowhere near a full butcher but getting some basic experience.

Point is it’s an apprenticeship that takes years and starts with helping a butcher do low value stuff. Grabbing half a cow and trying to cut it up probably isn’t the best entry point or test of aptitude.

temporallobe
Some years ago, I got so sick of spending endless hours at my desk writing rspec automation tests that I suddenly had a strong urge to become a forest ranger.
wabbawabbe
I have a feeling you would spend a few weeks as a forest ranger. Then slowly you'd notice all the things you could optimise or automate. A few months later you would be working for the rangers IT department
tomaytotomato
There's always been absurdity though, right?

These are some I can think of or have witnessed since starting my dev career in 2010:

- 4GL business languages making developers redundant

- Big data

- Cloud computing

- DevOps

- LLMs

For those about to quit, I salute you.

jghn
I started my career in the mid-90s and 4GLs making all of us obsolete was already a thing by then!
schnevets
I think the fad that most closely aligned with current AI absurdity was mid-2000s outsourcing.
QuiEgo
I feel like it was the dot com boom. :s/"Make everything online"/"Make everything use AI"/g

In a similar story, AI makes sense for some stuff but not other stuff. The stuff where it does not make sense for is gonna do bad when the bubble pops.

AnimalMuppet
Heh. Back in the 1970s, AD/Cycle was The Big New Thing that was going to make everything else obsolete. Fortunately, that was just a bit before I started, so I never had to worry about it, because it never did much of anything.
snek_case
I was working at an AI startup, and I saw our CTO lie in a demo to potential customers. I know that startups sometimes have a "fake it till you make it" mindset, but the guy straight up used a product from another company, presented it as our company's product, and faked numbers. I saw him completely misrepresent the capabilities of our product several times. Unethical and most likely illegal, I felt super disappointed, but I didn't immediately quit.

I quit later, as it became increasingly clear to me that this guy knew nothing about technology, didn't care, but also had a fragile ego where he had to present himself to the company as being in charge, even though he was the worst person for the role. To top it all off, it also dawned on me over time that we basically had an absentee CEO who was working only ~15 hours a week at most. Then when I quit I found out there was a third co-founder who owned a huge stake of the company and I did not even know existed.

hen I first interviewed, the CTO seemed like a nice and friendly guy, I didn't immediately see red flags. This was my first startup experience. I'll try to research things better if I decide to join one again. I might also just not join unless I can myself be a co-founder. Fuck reporting to incompetent twats.

Currently taking a sabbatical. I decided to take the summer off. I'm working on personal projects. Lucky enough to have good savings from a previous job so I can afford to do this.

tcp_handshaker
"I quit later, as it became increasingly clear to me that this guy knew nothing about technology, didn't care, but also had a fragile ego where he had to present himself to the company as being in charge, even though he was the worst person for the role. To top it all off, it also dawned on me over time that we basically had an absentee CEO who was working only ~15 hours a week at most. Then when I quit I found out there was a third co-founder who owned a huge stake of the company and I did not even know existed."

This is so funny, because describes like the last four CEOs and companies I worked for :-) Is there an alternate reality I have yet to experience?

snek_case
I've come to understand, talking to a friend who is also in the startup world, that there are some CEOs who run a "portfolio" of startups. It's pretty weird. I don't really understand why investors would put money in a company that only has a part-time CEO.
ridgeguy
SpaceX, Tesla, and X have entered the chat....
azath92
That sounds like a tough realization to come to, and has been an opposite of my experiences in startups (as a non founder). Ive sought them out because the leadership cares so freaking much about what they are doing, and really genuinely wants to succeed. That can be intense, but at least you know they care. If you are early enough to have both equity and a solid chance at impacting the possibility of success you can have both mercenary and personal incentives aligned in a way that is impossible in a bigger company IMO.

I hope you give startups another go if that sounds good to you, and as you say, it sounds like you will be able to see the things you dont want at least. Good luck.

Rnonymous
Im close to stopping.

Founder of a deeptech/hardware startup in a difficult sector and we are struggling to get our tech validated (latest datapoint are no improvement over the current practice). While i believe with sufficient time it can be proven and improved, that crosses into the realm of academia and not entrepeneurship.

So yeah motivation is quite low at the moment, and im not sure if to push-on or accept failure and move on.

Any advice?

mtrimpe
Are you doing it to get money/success/fame? Stop. Data says no.

Are you doing it because you want to bring something new into the world? Acknowledge that and keep going as long as it's healthy for you overall.

jchallis
Read the Wikipedia page on the sunk cost fallacy. Knowing what you know now , would you have continued down this path ? The biggest costs are always opportunity costs and investing in something that isn’t likely to pay off robs you from higher value alternatives (including rest, recharging and joining a more successful venture) .
Xunjin
Now you made me curious, do you mind sharing more?
danrecht
Do you have lots of contacts in your industry? If so, consider solving their problems with existing tech for now. Most unloved corners of the physical economy will pay a give-a-darn premium to smart people who genuinely care about doing good work and satisfying their customers.

If it’s new tech or bust, build the most honest techno-economic model you can and use that to make your go/no-go decision.

kilroy123
I quit about a year ago...

I did a crazy experiment: Built and shipped 25 projects in 25 weeks.

Several of those projects made it to the top of HN here. One went viral and ended up in TechCrunch and many other big-name sites: https://channelsurfer.tv

I wasn't _trying_ to make money. I just wanted to build a bunch of cool shit, rekindle my love for building websites, make the web more fun, and maybe figure out what I wanted to do next.

Now I'm trying to focus on making money. I'm kind of out of money, so I'll likely need to do some freelance work for a while.

Soon I'm going to release something to help others do the same thing. Ship high-quality stuff quicker.

huflungdung
It’s not about money until you have no money

At least you now know what privilege feels like

ryan_n
They literally say they ran out of money lol how is that privileged?
Xunjin
I believe it means that he has the privilege to save amount of money, do what he wants and later on go back to the industry in a good position.

Remember that there are people who never had the opportunity to study or lives in a precarious situation.

poolnoodle
They were priviliged before and only now know how that feels because they aren't anymore
discors
That sounds intriguing. Did any of those 25 projects make money?

Can you go back and monetize them if you haven’t already?

kilroy123
I did, and I've made money from channel surfer, but it's far from paying the bills, kind of money.
littlecranky67
That sounds fascinating and I thought about doing similar, but as tech savy as I am to tackle every idea people throw at me, I am unable to come up with those ideas. Did you have a specific process to identify what your 25 projects to work on?
kilroy123
I pretty much kept a document of ideas. I would just randomly think of something and jot it down. The ideas I kept were exciting enough to keep coming back to and writing more down became what I built.
Longlius
I quit last year and have just been chilling and working on side projects. The reason I left was because of mandatory RTO combined with a very steep decline in the engineering culture of where I worked.

Got tired of having to talk to like five different people who barely spoke English to get anything done and the increasingly naked hostility from the c-suite about our value to the company.

AlexeyBelov
> naked hostility from the c-suite about our value to the company

So true. A friend told me that at his company the higher-ups "joke" about replacing all the devs. But it's not a surprise honestly, we've been slowly moving towards this (treating devs and workers in general as some costly inconvenience).

[dead] anonymoussuomy
[dead]
louwrentius
Quiet quit aka : do the actual amount of work you are are paid for and don't let yourself get ripped off due to 'pressures'.
skeeter2020
most people are paid as full time salary employees, aka 35-40 hours/week. You may feel that you personally do way more work than everyone else (80%+ plus of people do) but you don't get to define what "the actual amount of work you are paid for" is. There's usually lots of opportunities to find time to learn or go on tangents in non-terrible jobs, but unless your boss is quiet quitting as well, they - and your coworkers - will know, and this will screw you far more in the future than just quiting and getting a new job.
eudamoniac
The actual amount of work someone is paid for is the minimum amount of work that will not result in being fired.
pablopudding
I had a co-worker like this. Management believed him over me when I complained. Go for a clean exit once you've found a new position. This toxic environment hurts your mental health more than you think.
NDizzle
Maybe we should start a support group.
voakbasda
There is one in your area. They meet at the bar down the street after work.
jongjong
You just shouldn't take anything too seriously. I used to resent being paid by the hour instead of based on deliverables.

But nowadays I am extremely glad that I bill hourly. It's a different skillset. There's a lot of acting and drama involved but thankfully I'm good at both.

I feel kind of bad for colleagues who take their job too seriously though. I can feel their pain but I can't tell them to relax because I have to also act my part and pretend to feel passionate.

I'm passionate about money hitting my bank account. Really passionate about that... And I'm paid by the hour. So logically I need to create situations to maximize my locking factor, above all else.

If you can keep up the pretense for 2 years, then that's enough to keep you employed perpetually. So engineers should focus more on acting skills and other soft skills and less on technical stuff. Look at all the people who made big money, none of them have technical skills. It's all about acting.

eska
This was so sad to read. I quit because I didn’t want to end up this dead inside.
[deleted]
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oriolgfarssac
Yep! I just did. I’m leaving this July.

To anyone reading this: don’t be afraid to make the move. It’s your life. It can feel scary before you do it, but once you finally quit, it’s not scary anymore.

witx
My current company, even though slower than the industry, has started pushing AI-first for everything. Funny that as soon they announced it they started losing senior developers and most teams are now composed mostly of juniors + 1 senior.This on safety-critical adjacent products. Burnout and bugs and rampant. As a counter measure they are increasing salaries of the seniors but with low adherence.

I'm currently looking and I'm considering cutting my salary up to 50℅ to work for a company with a very interesting product that doesnt push AI and let us instead decide where to use it.

I'd rather lower my quality of life than put up with this bs and being forced to use a tool that I disagree so much on an ethical and moral pov. Let alone letting managera decide which tools I have to use on my engineering work

DonHopkins
[delayed]
witx
Perhaps Im a bit too dense the follow the analogy
QuiEgo
Wait a few months and you'll probably be okay.

The first trend of AI was "use as much as you can! You must use AI!!!". Hence the rise of tokenmaxxing leaderboards and KPIs on token use.

The second wave, happening right now, is "use it, but control cost". All the cool kid CEOs are now talking cost-control, rate limiting, and metering. If your management is a "follower" they are bound to hop on the trend.

phantasilide
I just quit recently. After a few years in big tech the only thing I have to show for it is a fat bank account. I don’t remember the last time I’ve learned something new or had any kind of responsibility.

I’ll be joining a startup in a few months to hopefully find the joy in my profession again with a fresh start and more skin in the game.

Longlius
I went the opposite way - I worked for smaller companies before going into a big corpo.

I will say that the experience taught me a lot about working on a team and also the importance of understanding my own (and my coworkers) limits when it comes to actually implementing stuff. Very worthwhile even if I left with a bad taste in my mouth.

one33seven
I quit recently too, typical reason: boss was being such a boss. My new bosses are way better
karmakurtisaani
I don't work for big tech, but you have at least one more thing to show for than I do!
kerm1t72
quitted on 6/30. Was working for 5 years as PO in autonomous driving. teams changed 3 times, France to US/Mexico/Europe to India. Each time start almost from scratch. Now cooking for family and boot strapping 2 startups.
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anonSrEng202309
Still can't get work. I've pretty much given up working for anyone else building software. Had an offer on the table for good pay, rescinded after a credit check (gov't subcontractor, "potential insider threat" excuse; fishy happenings with primary contractor lead me to believe they had their own guy they wanted to install...)

I found a little job in education (no tech at all) that pays $22k/yr. That'll float the bills while I use my spare time to build other things. Got a couple dev boards (one SBC, one for that cheap TI component that came across HN a few days ago) to toy around with some little hardware ideas I have that maybe I could productize.

Grabbing a PD analyzer and an older M1 or M2 Mac to explore Asahi Linux and maybe start contributing in a few months.

punk_ihaq
I quit over a year ago after burnout with a little bit of savings working in devrel and technical PM. Since then I went all in on scuba diving - became an instructor, maxed out open-circuit (OC) tec diving with 100m advance trimix dives, technical stage cave diving (OC), and most recently O2ptima CM Air Diluent CCR diving. I also got B2 certified in Indonesian. After burning a hole in my pocket on diving gear and certs, I'm looking for my next fully remote devrel/dev-ed role so I can go CCR cave diving in a few years :D
cmrdporcupine
I quit last September and have been doing sporadic freelancing and intensely working on personal projects.

It was already clear to me last summer that the agentic stuff was kind of the final nail in the coffin of a "normal" software dev shop. All the routine of a "normal" SCRUM-based software development shop was degrading even further from ritual and theater into a pointless charade or comedy, or as you say, absurdity.

Unfortunately I still need to make money. I've done a couple freelance gigs. Some is less absurd than others. I'm sporadically interviewing to go full time again but I'm being extremely picky.

skeeter2020
I quit last August for similar reasons, and lest everyone here think it's all amazing ICs vs. clueless managers, I was at the director level of a midsize company caught between the developers I deeply cared for and agentic madness pushed from the executives and my boss the CTO. I'm likely older than many here, but still too poor / young to retire and maybe it was a mistake, but I kind of feel like I didn't have a choice. I've made big contrarian (stupid?) moves before and they've worked out, so we'll see what's next. Over the past 11 months I've explored and worked with AI my way, and ridden a lot of bicycle.
535188B17C93743
I just quit. A comically inept director who screamed at people and promotions given out for obsequiousness over impact. I'm guessing the second one will be more-or-less the same everywhere but I'd rather not deal with people I don't respect in the slightest.
PyWoody
I was at a startup for about a decade. I really enjoyed the culture, the work was interesting and fulfilling, C-Suite were a blast to interact with, but, alas, it doesn't always work out. I learned so much about engineering, marketing, sales, interactions with outside companies; you name it.

Anyways, that shut down about two years ago. I tried my damndest to get a new job but I could never get past the initial interview --if I even got one!

I've sold my house and moved into a small apartment. I have about five more years of living expenses saved up. What'll I do after that? No idea. What am I doing now? Sitting by a river reading the day away.