I imagine my answer will be a bit unique - I'm in tech because I like computers and I'm good at working with them, but I feel a strong conviction that if I'd had my way, I would've gone into some sort of sex work, likely either porn or pro-domme work. There was an article posted here[0] a few years ago by an escort reflecting on her experiences, and the conclusion, which spoke to the human element of the work, deeply resonated with me - in fact, I recently left the IC track for a manager role because I'm realizing how meaningful I find work that exercises empathy to be.
Human sexuality is the one thing in this world that's more interesting to me than computers, and while I'm grateful for my stable job and career that allow me to explore it as a hobby, I'm infinitely curious about what that other life would have looked like.
Many of us have to do this job(personality quirks, ASD, etc). I remember talking to a nerd friend(Verilog/VHDL guy) 25 years ago, in the time before Google salaries when engineering wasn't a job most people desired. He shared that thought and it rang true with me. I've met many folks who I don't think would have done well outside engineering. Myself, I have a good brain for engineering but have a marked lack of common sense. I'm a jack of all trades but as that implies I'm not particularly good at anything besides systems programming or electrical engineering.
Back in college('97) a guy offered me a job as an elevator repair tech. I almost dropped out since the money was better than what I'd make as an engineer($50/hr plus OT). My first engineering job, doing embedded SW and some EE work for a large consumer electronics company was $37.5k/yr.
> Myself, I have a good brain for engineering but have a marked lack of common sense.
I mean this sincerely, this is a geniuinely impressive level of self-awareness. If everybody was better at recognizing things like this, I think the world would be a much better place. Cheers
I'm 50 so I have enough experience to have overcome any resistance to the idea that I am mostly a dumbass.
The majority of my larger life decisions have turned out poorly. Fortunately the ones that worked out paid off well enough to make up for the ones that didn't.
The pool of tech jobs in my area was sparse, but the local employers were fully on board with the big-city "use them for a while and toss them out" system. So when times were good in IT, I bought a machine shop, and in between times of lucrative IT employment, I did short-run metalworking and engine rebuilding.
I don't really know what I would do. I'll probably find some other jobs that I don't need to talk to other people very often, but there are not many of these. I don't care too much about salary because I can always scale back to backbone lifestyle.
Maybe a janitor/security job or a bus driver job suits me well. Neither requires a huge amount of training, and neither requires a lot of brain activity so I can preserve my brain cells for hobby programming. Both have a non-trivial number of job openings too, especially for janitors/securities.
If money was no issue, I'd go into carpentry. I find building things out of wood to be immensely satisfying. Everything from the smell of the wood, the differences by wood type, the naturally beautiful look it has, and the usability/UX of the final product tickle me in ways that I haven't experienced before. I've gotten very close with personal software projects, but the physicality of the wood is something software has never been able to replicate.
I was about to answer the same, I'd go to carpentry. I love being in the workshop, I love the pieces I made, I wish I had more time to properly finish some of them with all the details I had envisioned.
I've considered it a lot when I went through a big burnout, perhaps I should've just thrown away the 20+ years of career in tech at that moment to start as a journeyman since now it just became much harder to let go off the comforts this career brings me...
Oh man, we've got a lot of similarity there! I even took 2 weeks of PTO at one point when I was feeling massive burnout and spend that time in the shop building a table, chairs, benches, and a couple of attempts at mantles. Chairs were a lot harder than I initially thought (mostly making them comfortable to sit in), but the table and benches were easy enough I could crank out a table in a day and two or three benches the next day.
After that two weeks I even did some market research to see if there was any way to make a remotely comparable living off of it (unfortunately there wasn't, at least until the kids are out of the house and expenses go way down). I also realized that my style was not well aligned with popular styles at the time (this was 2019), and that shipping costs basically meant I could only sell to local area (and even then delivery cost/time would require adding too much margin).
Someday hopefully life will be more compatible with our dream :-)
I've now reframed a garage, built a woodshed, and built a utility shed. I'm planning to build a cabin in the next couple of years. Working with something physically tangible is immensely rewarding.
Indeed! I also found it let me indulge in a secondary passion of mine which is fuel efficiency. For example, when I'm building it myself I can make the walls ludicrously thick and insulated to the point where it stays a relatively moderate temp inside even without climate control. I built a shed to use as a luxury dog house, and it was tight enough that a single small space heater could keep it quite pleasant in the winter (when outside temps would be a low of around 12 deg F and high around 28 deg F).
Material costs were a little ridiculous, but since I'm only building for myself that wasn't a huge issue :-)
This is accomplished in new builds with intentional ventilation. My above-garage ADU accomplishes this with a schedule on the bathroom fan and a make-up air intake in the utility closet. A more expensive (and more efficient) route would be to install an HRV or ERV.
As an energy consultant friend explained to me: You want to control the ventilation rate, rather than relying on whatever you get accidentally (which may not be enough, especially on calm days).
But I know it's hard on your body, and you have to do it regardless of weather, so I wouldn't enjoy those aspects as much (versus in a climate-controlled office / WFH).
Same, specifically boat-building for me because it just draws me in.
But more generally, I would like to commit my time to making the built world more beautiful and sustainable. I despise the obsolescent plastic slop that we all are forced to use, wear, live in, and just see and be around all the time. I find it such a degradation in our society -- the shift in taste and values away from an appreciation of well-made, durable, and well-designed physical objects.
Neat, I really want to try building a boat! That does seem like it would be really fun. I started on a kayak once but didn't finish it and ended up cannabilizing many of the pieces for another project after a long-time kayaker friend of mine explained some of the big flaws in my design (I have a strong tendency to get creative with designs, for better or worse), and when I realized that my wood selection was highly suboptimal for something that would get heavily exposed to water. I really need to try again.
What type of wood would you recommend? Do you have any favorite designs you would recommend using as a starting point?
Check out forum.woodenboat.com to read from a lot of amateurs taking on the project, just be warned that the rabbit hole is alluring and very deep.
It's typically not recommended to self-design, the physics gets technical and there are a lot of free working plans out there including by famous naval architects.
Most people start out with simpler designs using plywood and fiberglass but, due to my aforementioned disdain for a lot of modern approaches, I personally went with a traditional oak frame, cedar plank, copper rivet construction. It is very time consuming but I'm enjoying the journey. I chose a flat-bottomed sail boat design (dory) to make it a little easier on myself.
There are endless variations on the concept of a "wooden vessel that can be propelled through water" idea so it really depends on your interests and tastes. It's a "form follows function" situation too, so you also need to consider your use case -- engine, oar, sail; ocean, river, lake; etc.
I'd do what I do now: computer science instructor and author. :)
My wife is an SLP at a hospital and she loves it. I couldn't handle the more medical parts, but I can see crossover there with assessment and problem-solving. She geeks out on it.
Both of us are definitely interested in work that benefits lives. (For me, a lot of that is driven by my desire to repent for working in online advertising for so many years.) If that's something that matters to you, and it sounds like it is, I definitely recommend pushing for that. But think outside the box, too--there are a lot of places in tech that benefit people and provide interaction.
Finally, watch out for the student loan-to-income ratio for things like SLP. Make sure you're balancing that.
I'm not 'in tech', but I am a technology librarian and a large part of my job is teaching senior citizens how to use their devices. I don't make a ton of money, but I get a lot of social capital in my community, as well as a bunch of fresh baked goods this time of year.
Depending on my finances, I'd probably paint for a little bit. When I say paint, I mean paint buildings, not paint canvas or anything like that. Did this for a few years in college and it was satisfying to actually see physical proof of your work. Also, the only way you ever took you work home with you was if you got paint on yourself.
While I probably wouldn't make a career out of it, I have the same feelings about painting. It's a satisfying zen and I love doing weekend painting projects on the house.
I was a copy editor long ago, and pretty good at it. I have been slightly surprised to make the acquaintance of a couple of people who still do that. One said that the wages aren't great, which was my recollection. But I wouldn't mind working as an editor.
Do you mean "money is not an issue, what else would you do" or "AI has automated tech, what other job would you pick now" or "had you made different life choices 20 years ago..."?
Former tech worker here. I don’t know yet, and don’t have many skills outside of computer jockey. Can be friendly for short periods but not a people person. What do y’all suggest?
I like programming so I'd probably just keep doing that.
If I didn't have to work in order to live I'd probably spend more time sailing, playing music, and being with my family.
But I'd still be programming. The kind of programming I'd do would be focused on my interests rather than the interests of businesses and shareholders that employ me though.
If I had money, I'd start to set up free after-school tutoring/play areas.
I'd love to open a new business of a dog park that sells coffee in the morning, and beer in the afternoon/evening. A small amount of nice workstations for people to get some work/studying done.
If I never got into tech- well I was going to be a Materials Engineer, but if I were a tradesman I'd probably be an electrician because of my superiority complex, lack of craftsman-level hand-eye coordination, and I like expensive tools.
True, I think these things are hard because they don't scale easy. You really need some passionate "boots on the ground" for it to work, you can't just send money over and have it work out most of the time. Finding the people who could run it well, and convincing them to do it is the hard part. These types of people are usually also not the best when "bad" people come around to bend the purpose to their desires.
It is my dream to do some of it in the developing world too, if I were to visit someplace often to help out more. A church I used to attend was big on surfing and would take trips to a small town in Mexico. They build an orphanage, some living spaces for single mothers, drastically improved some schools amongst other things and I think that was an awesome way to do charity. There were a couple run-ins with smalltime cartel-ish activity (as they saw it as a power grab) but because everything was from church to church, most donations came in the form of infrastructure and supplies (no money to take), and the pastor was a bit crazy (he visits prisons often and can deal with the thug mindset) they allowed it continue.
I haven't had consistent or full-time work in tech in 2 years (1 year since any work, 8-9 years in tech before that)
I'm still doing software work related to activism, but I haven't been looking for paid work because the pickings are incredibly slim for work aligned with my values. I'm planning to get into rope access work in a few months.
I'm not going to stop working on software as long as I'm able to provide value beyond what AI tooling can do, but I'm not hopeful for a return to the industry when I'm so misaligned with Big Tech™.
I’d go into psychology research. I have some very low percentage chance mental health traits and there’s not many people studying what I have who have lived experience and are not too disabled to study it. I know I’d enjoy doing clinical work too, and often find my time not doing software is helping others and making community w those folks.
Sadly, I’m not wealthy enough to afford to reset like that, I’ll never be able to retire.
Why programmers like cooking: You peel the carrot, you chop the carrot, you put the carrot in the stew. You don’t suddenly find out that your peeler is several versions behind and they dropped support for carrots in 4.3
For many reasons, some of them I'm sure fall into the "grass is greener" category, but tech just hasn't been very satisfying. Sure, it pays the bills and parts of it I do find interesting, but it just pales compared to how satisfying it feels to cook and serve people good food.
I would probably be a NEET without partner and kids.
I really like computers and it's what pulled me out of online multiplayer games.
Without them,I would probably have succumbed to my high school burnout and not made any progress academically or professionally.
Nowadays, probably something in finances, I realized I could have enjoyed accounting or some work related to business finances, but this is something I learned while working, not before.
I’d probably become a chef - cooking has always felt like the most natural non-tech path for me. It’s a craft and a very creative process, with immediate, tangible results.
As a med-school dropout, in his early 40s (left medicine two decades ago), I cannot even imagine having enough energy to even apply for medical school. At least in the United Hates of America, this is my jaded perspective.
I became an electrician, instead, with stints IBEW and self-employed residential. Lots of money-making opportunities, but lots of unlicensed competition from handymen that "know just enough to be dangerous" — most customers only care if the light turns on, not that it's long-term safe.
I'm actually attempting to get into officework, somewhere. I can't do another twenty years of physical construction, whether in houses or factories.
>Are you self-employed now?
Yes, but I choose not to work regularly.
Fortunately, I have enough savings to not be too worried — presuming the economy picks up within the next few years (I can outlast this presidency, doing nothing).
I became a union electrician specifically to get away from tech and then found myself spending most of my apprenticeship wiring data centers.
Can't seem to escape from the tech gods.
Unfortunately blue collar labor takes its toll on bodies — probably best-left to hobby grunt work (and not full-time) unless you like back/knee/hip pain =D
I'm currently attempting to transition back into white collar tech (early 40s) but we all know how that's going (in this economy). Fortunately twisting wires together for decades has allowed me to stack enough savings that I'm not in a rush / desperate for re-training/employment.
I fully expected to age out of tech by the time I hit 40 (just hit 49, still in tech) -- so I do flight instruction, aircraft inspections and relocation. It's tech money but not tech consistency, and has basically pivoted my favorite hobby and turned it into a job, which has its own challenges.
I'm still building it out. Going for my Repair Station license next year and hoping to add pitot-static and transponder calibration to my services menu. I wrench on my own plane, but the liability exposure is insane, so I won't sign work for others.
It's really odd, but I think when I disclose this to my tech masters, there is something of a novelty value, and they appreciate that I can sling code... and also other things. That old "well rounded" trope I guess.
One of these or a mix of - history, archaeology, and literature. But as they say, you never know.
I absolutely knew even when I left school ("school" school) that none of these would pay, so I assume your question has an implicit "if money was no concern". Because money/job was the reason I picked engineering and CS in college. While I did quite well (academically and professionally), I never loved it. Maybe I liked it here and there. Then I knew this would happen; that's the reason I was at least prudent enough to never do that CS MS (with multiple options for full scholarships in Europe around a decade ago). But not prudent enough to explore masters in many of the non-STEM fields that were there for the taking pretty much. Some of those might have paired well with this STEM bachelors in some way or the other.
This thought experiment insinuates that not working in tech means infinite money or resources, which I realize is not the spirit of the question, but in the event that funding is of no consequence...
I would build sound systems. Huge ones, bigger than what's in my garage. Bone-shaking, yet clear as the pure blue sky
I would open a video store / computer lab / hangout for skaters, nerds and misfits
I would curate a library, with a point of view -- the most interesting ones are where the signal has been extricated from the noise and somebody wants you to see the world how they see the world
I would make a lot of things, physical and digital -- from 3D prints to woodworking to PCBs to strange websites and curious software
I would get a giant pizza oven and a huge cauldron and fuck around making pies and stews LOL
I would just do cool shit with my friends!
I basically do a lot of these things already in measured doses, in between begging, scraping, seeking, asking for, grabbing money; that whole pursuit is a great stick and carrot that keeps the human moving through life, but it's also kind of corrosive to the soul, and unavoidable if you want to participate in society.
Funny how when I re-read what I'm about to post (as a middle aged man), it sounds like the pipe dream of a 12 year old boy, some old loser who refuses to grow up lol
Before I got my degree I was a machinist/ millwright and doing various things in between. Took a break after covid to go back for a little to decompress from tech but inevitably came back to programming.
Love the work but hate the pay and toll it took on my body.
I’ve made some interesting things in the past few years, in particular singing Tesla coils and digitally-controlled plasma tube lights. Was thinking about making bespoke musical instruments based on some of these learnings.
Of particular interest was some interesting types of feedback that came from the Tesla coils. Basically we modulated the frequency we drove the coils to produce sound, but the coils would interfere with one another because that’s how electromagnetism works. We had to tune them to different resonant frequencies to play sound. But the interference itself could sound unique and eerie, sometimes like an old-timey radio. It’s similar in principle to a theremin but a very different sound.
Or I could just get a soul sucking job and do this in early retirement. Shrug.
All the jobs I rather be doing are antiquated. Furniture maker but it’s not a viable job anymore either. A machinist, tool-die maker. Or mechanic maybe. I have always thought that mechanics are just debugging a very specific architecture. None of these make money though.
A friend of mine is getting ready to retire after 30-odd years in IT. He has already tooled up and trained for his retirement profession: farrier; the guy who makes and installs horse shoes. It's more profitable than it used to be since few people do it any more, and farriers typically work on their own schedule.
Honestly, it seems to me that it's "undoing" a lot of work.
Labor Rate at dealerships around me are over $200/h. Granted the mechanic doesn't get 100% of that but 200 * 52 * 8 is nearly 600k. It seems like you could go somewhere else and get the same amount of money as Ford (or more) and don't need to worry about future salary increases not occurring.
The problem is that the mechanics are paid fixed hours for a given type of job (according to the dealership's standard for how long a given job should take). They are not truly being paid per hour. While it's supposed to encourage efficiency, you can imagine how this negatively affects the mechanics as well as the work quality outcomes.
I personally believe that life is better if you do what you are naturally good at versus something you're interested in. I was lucky that I am both good at and interested in tech.
The LSAT doesn't feel too difficult, especially the sections based around logical reasoning. So if I went back in time and tech somehow wasn't an option, law is probably where I'd be
I think I would enjoy building houses, or solar-battery-electrical installations. I like infrastructure (my favorite games include Factorio) and being able do that in the real world sounds both useful and enjoyable/satisfying.
If i could start over again i would love to work as forester. I even considered working as lumberjack. I got required certificates, im legally allowed to work in the industry doing sawork (as in, felling trees, even if not private property).
I know it is an highly physical demanding and also very risky job. Now that a second child arives, obviously, life changing again, i just cant do it, i need to feed two kinds soon and these kind of jobs are not well payed.
So ill stick to doing my own firewood once a year, a couple of days outside in the woods and keep dreaming about it.
I run a website that helps people settle in Berlin. It's been my full-time job for a few years now, although AI is slowly killing websites like mine now.
Binge watching Netflix and doom scrolling Insta-rcisst.
And once I had gotten over the anxiety and low self-esteem that I'd develop by engaging in these activities, probably become some kind of tech artist or simply be creativity for the sack of creating something.
No insta, no facebook, no twitter, more a reflection of what these technologies are doing to our "societies" or rather our "individualised groups of humans collectively doom-scrolling into global disaster of one kind or another".
I would have had almost no choice but to work for my father in the family rigging business, given that I was the first son of a first son. There's a good chance I'd be dead or severely disabled due to my lack of awareness (ADHD) of heavy machinery moving around me. If tech wasn't an option otherwise, I think I would have chosen to become an electrician—less chance of me becoming dead than moving machinery.
I'm currently incubating a sick twisted fantasy to run a handbuilt bicycle wheelbuilding store. If you asked me this question 20 years ago, the answer would be music teacher.
I could have been an academic or an activist. My son reactivated in me the "making" aspect of experimental physics that had a big impact on me despite doing theory for my PhD. (My son builds buildings by day, guitars by night)
In the last two years I've become a semi-pro photographer. I guess I am also an "activist" now but approach it as personal change [1] instead of interpersonal conflict.
[1] a kind of global "daoism" that embraces all kinds of human development
Physics, of course. Well, at least that is what I was doing before. If not that teaching. Math, physics, programming. I could teach any of that I guess
If it wasn’t about the money I would be a teacher of some kind.
When I’m retired I plan to get a part-time job as an usher at a theater, arena, concert hall, or stadium.
Another good option is to get a really low-stress job at a tropical resort. I can imagine running a little stand that rents out umbrellas and chairs on a beach. Or maybe walking around the beach selling ice cream out of a cart.
Really different questions with different answers.
If it were just for my own care-free leisure and benefit, I would probably go to school again and try some other academic path in math, physics or history. Or rekindle my CS study and do a phd - so many different interesting topics.
In the real world, as a parent with a huge mortgage? Pretty much anything. Janitorial work, insurance agent, landscaping, whatever.
I'd try and figure out how to make a living converting older, everyday cars/trucks to EVs. Restomod I guess; but not just classic sports cars and big trucks (though I love those too). I think a 1989 Mazda Protege deserves a new life as an affordable commuter car. Tape deck and all.
I also could end up being happy in condensed matter physics, astrophysics, robotics, materials science, nano tech, optics, or RF. Some combination of engineering and science.
I love teaching and building things to help people. So there are a bunch of areas that would fit the bill here. I gravitate towards any tech that feels like magic.
My background is in computer science and philosophy. But philosophy was always about pure interest and not career prospect.
If I had to pivot in 2025, I’d probably go for psychology. I’m interested in that, I enjoy the idea of more directly helping people and have myself been tremendously helped by psychologists the past years.
Probably electrical metrology. Though there are more jobs in dimensional metrology, and that's also interesting. Though I doubt the US is going to get more manufacturing if tech collapses, so that's not exactly a good backup plan.
I sometimes think of being a massage artist. It's relaxing and satisfying to massage people and feel the kinks and knots loosening. However I don't have the verbal skills to smalltalk. And I don't like dealing with people either.
I could imagine being a car mechanic or a welder. Repairing my car is a little hobby of mine and I could imagine doing that full time, if programming work would stop paying my bills.
I'd become a neurosurgeon, always wanted to be since childhood for some reason. Maybe I drew inspiration from youtube watching those tumor removal videos.
Frankly I really don't know what id don't not in tech. Closest I van think of is some kind of mathematician but don't even know what those "jobs" look like. Academia might be another. But these are all tech adjacent aren't they?
Bus driver in SF or near a tech hub, so I can listen to mindless grifting and endless complaining by tech workers that would re-enforce the life decision I made.
If I take the question to mean: "you still have to work but you can't work in tech, what would you do?" I had thought about this around the time of the last layoffs that we had ... and I think I'd go to a trade school to become an electrician.
BUT ... to be 100% honest there's nothing I am really any good at other than tech. I guess I could try my hand at teaching. Would that be a good enough loop hole? I could maybe teach Econ 101 at a junior college probably. It'd be a huge pay cut but it'd be better than being jobless.
not a communist, but the communist manifesto articulated this problem very well in people end up doing work that does not matter to them because of capitalism. imagine a world, where people do that, they are passionate about and not have to worry about basic means and even some wants (entertainment, comfort living etc). a world of abundance for everyone where people just do what they are super passionate about. will AI help towards that or not is a big question.
I imagine my answer will be a bit unique - I'm in tech because I like computers and I'm good at working with them, but I feel a strong conviction that if I'd had my way, I would've gone into some sort of sex work, likely either porn or pro-domme work. There was an article posted here[0] a few years ago by an escort reflecting on her experiences, and the conclusion, which spoke to the human element of the work, deeply resonated with me - in fact, I recently left the IC track for a manager role because I'm realizing how meaningful I find work that exercises empathy to be.
Human sexuality is the one thing in this world that's more interesting to me than computers, and while I'm grateful for my stable job and career that allow me to explore it as a hobby, I'm infinitely curious about what that other life would have looked like.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28924751
We must repeal
Many of us have to do this job(personality quirks, ASD, etc). I remember talking to a nerd friend(Verilog/VHDL guy) 25 years ago, in the time before Google salaries when engineering wasn't a job most people desired. He shared that thought and it rang true with me. I've met many folks who I don't think would have done well outside engineering. Myself, I have a good brain for engineering but have a marked lack of common sense. I'm a jack of all trades but as that implies I'm not particularly good at anything besides systems programming or electrical engineering.
Back in college('97) a guy offered me a job as an elevator repair tech. I almost dropped out since the money was better than what I'd make as an engineer($50/hr plus OT). My first engineering job, doing embedded SW and some EE work for a large consumer electronics company was $37.5k/yr.
In 2025, these numbers would double: $100k as a repair tech (not bad), $75k as an engineer (hmm, what?).
> Myself, I have a good brain for engineering but have a marked lack of common sense.
I mean this sincerely, this is a geniuinely impressive level of self-awareness. If everybody was better at recognizing things like this, I think the world would be a much better place. Cheers
I'm 50 so I have enough experience to have overcome any resistance to the idea that I am mostly a dumbass.
The majority of my larger life decisions have turned out poorly. Fortunately the ones that worked out paid off well enough to make up for the ones that didn't.
The pool of tech jobs in my area was sparse, but the local employers were fully on board with the big-city "use them for a while and toss them out" system. So when times were good in IT, I bought a machine shop, and in between times of lucrative IT employment, I did short-run metalworking and engine rebuilding.
I don't really know what I would do. I'll probably find some other jobs that I don't need to talk to other people very often, but there are not many of these. I don't care too much about salary because I can always scale back to backbone lifestyle.
Maybe a janitor/security job or a bus driver job suits me well. Neither requires a huge amount of training, and neither requires a lot of brain activity so I can preserve my brain cells for hobby programming. Both have a non-trivial number of job openings too, especially for janitors/securities.
If money was no issue, I'd go into carpentry. I find building things out of wood to be immensely satisfying. Everything from the smell of the wood, the differences by wood type, the naturally beautiful look it has, and the usability/UX of the final product tickle me in ways that I haven't experienced before. I've gotten very close with personal software projects, but the physicality of the wood is something software has never been able to replicate.
I was about to answer the same, I'd go to carpentry. I love being in the workshop, I love the pieces I made, I wish I had more time to properly finish some of them with all the details I had envisioned.
I've considered it a lot when I went through a big burnout, perhaps I should've just thrown away the 20+ years of career in tech at that moment to start as a journeyman since now it just became much harder to let go off the comforts this career brings me...
Oh man, we've got a lot of similarity there! I even took 2 weeks of PTO at one point when I was feeling massive burnout and spend that time in the shop building a table, chairs, benches, and a couple of attempts at mantles. Chairs were a lot harder than I initially thought (mostly making them comfortable to sit in), but the table and benches were easy enough I could crank out a table in a day and two or three benches the next day.
After that two weeks I even did some market research to see if there was any way to make a remotely comparable living off of it (unfortunately there wasn't, at least until the kids are out of the house and expenses go way down). I also realized that my style was not well aligned with popular styles at the time (this was 2019), and that shipping costs basically meant I could only sell to local area (and even then delivery cost/time would require adding too much margin).
Someday hopefully life will be more compatible with our dream :-)
I've now reframed a garage, built a woodshed, and built a utility shed. I'm planning to build a cabin in the next couple of years. Working with something physically tangible is immensely rewarding.
Indeed! I also found it let me indulge in a secondary passion of mine which is fuel efficiency. For example, when I'm building it myself I can make the walls ludicrously thick and insulated to the point where it stays a relatively moderate temp inside even without climate control. I built a shed to use as a luxury dog house, and it was tight enough that a single small space heater could keep it quite pleasant in the winter (when outside temps would be a low of around 12 deg F and high around 28 deg F).
Material costs were a little ridiculous, but since I'm only building for myself that wasn't a huge issue :-)
tight is not the goal - a home needs to breath
This is accomplished in new builds with intentional ventilation. My above-garage ADU accomplishes this with a schedule on the bathroom fan and a make-up air intake in the utility closet. A more expensive (and more efficient) route would be to install an HRV or ERV.
As an energy consultant friend explained to me: You want to control the ventilation rate, rather than relying on whatever you get accidentally (which may not be enough, especially on calm days).
There's an organisation in Australia called "the Men's Shed", that has workshops that people can go to to work on projects. It's more about combating loneliness though. https://mensshed.org/about-mens-sheds/what-is-a-mens-shed/
> If money was no issue, I'd go into carpentry.
I can see myself liking the process of construction:
* https://www.youtube.com/@PerkinsBuilderBrothers/videos
But I know it's hard on your body, and you have to do it regardless of weather, so I wouldn't enjoy those aspects as much (versus in a climate-controlled office / WFH).
Same, specifically boat-building for me because it just draws me in.
But more generally, I would like to commit my time to making the built world more beautiful and sustainable. I despise the obsolescent plastic slop that we all are forced to use, wear, live in, and just see and be around all the time. I find it such a degradation in our society -- the shift in taste and values away from an appreciation of well-made, durable, and well-designed physical objects.
Neat, I really want to try building a boat! That does seem like it would be really fun. I started on a kayak once but didn't finish it and ended up cannabilizing many of the pieces for another project after a long-time kayaker friend of mine explained some of the big flaws in my design (I have a strong tendency to get creative with designs, for better or worse), and when I realized that my wood selection was highly suboptimal for something that would get heavily exposed to water. I really need to try again.
What type of wood would you recommend? Do you have any favorite designs you would recommend using as a starting point?
Check out forum.woodenboat.com to read from a lot of amateurs taking on the project, just be warned that the rabbit hole is alluring and very deep.
It's typically not recommended to self-design, the physics gets technical and there are a lot of free working plans out there including by famous naval architects.
Most people start out with simpler designs using plywood and fiberglass but, due to my aforementioned disdain for a lot of modern approaches, I personally went with a traditional oak frame, cedar plank, copper rivet construction. It is very time consuming but I'm enjoying the journey. I chose a flat-bottomed sail boat design (dory) to make it a little easier on myself.
There are endless variations on the concept of a "wooden vessel that can be propelled through water" idea so it really depends on your interests and tastes. It's a "form follows function" situation too, so you also need to consider your use case -- engine, oar, sail; ocean, river, lake; etc.
I'd do what I do now: computer science instructor and author. :)
My wife is an SLP at a hospital and she loves it. I couldn't handle the more medical parts, but I can see crossover there with assessment and problem-solving. She geeks out on it.
Both of us are definitely interested in work that benefits lives. (For me, a lot of that is driven by my desire to repent for working in online advertising for so many years.) If that's something that matters to you, and it sounds like it is, I definitely recommend pushing for that. But think outside the box, too--there are a lot of places in tech that benefit people and provide interaction.
Finally, watch out for the student loan-to-income ratio for things like SLP. Make sure you're balancing that.
SLP - Speech-Language Pathologist?
I'm not 'in tech', but I am a technology librarian and a large part of my job is teaching senior citizens how to use their devices. I don't make a ton of money, but I get a lot of social capital in my community, as well as a bunch of fresh baked goods this time of year.
Baker. Very phisical job, night hours, but it's creative and you really make something with your hands. Wonderful.
Depending on my finances, I'd probably paint for a little bit. When I say paint, I mean paint buildings, not paint canvas or anything like that. Did this for a few years in college and it was satisfying to actually see physical proof of your work. Also, the only way you ever took you work home with you was if you got paint on yourself.
While I probably wouldn't make a career out of it, I have the same feelings about painting. It's a satisfying zen and I love doing weekend painting projects on the house.
I was a copy editor long ago, and pretty good at it. I have been slightly surprised to make the acquaintance of a couple of people who still do that. One said that the wages aren't great, which was my recollection. But I wouldn't mind working as an editor.
Do you mean "money is not an issue, what else would you do" or "AI has automated tech, what other job would you pick now" or "had you made different life choices 20 years ago..."?
Former tech worker here. I don’t know yet, and don’t have many skills outside of computer jockey. Can be friendly for short periods but not a people person. What do y’all suggest?
Handyman for the elderly
I do not know... teach kids?
I like programming so I'd probably just keep doing that.
If I didn't have to work in order to live I'd probably spend more time sailing, playing music, and being with my family.
But I'd still be programming. The kind of programming I'd do would be focused on my interests rather than the interests of businesses and shareholders that employ me though.
Practical answer: military officer stuff
Ideal answer: go back to school and become a horticulture scientist
If I had money, I'd start to set up free after-school tutoring/play areas. I'd love to open a new business of a dog park that sells coffee in the morning, and beer in the afternoon/evening. A small amount of nice workstations for people to get some work/studying done. If I never got into tech- well I was going to be a Materials Engineer, but if I were a tradesman I'd probably be an electrician because of my superiority complex, lack of craftsman-level hand-eye coordination, and I like expensive tools.
I really like your ideas and send you support energy if you ever want to pursue these.
I also have ideas for creating such spaces and just the other day I fantasized about a building I saw rent.
Fwiw, if you earn USD, the "developing world" also needs these spaces and it's significantly cheaper to try and take a chance at some of these spaces.
True, I think these things are hard because they don't scale easy. You really need some passionate "boots on the ground" for it to work, you can't just send money over and have it work out most of the time. Finding the people who could run it well, and convincing them to do it is the hard part. These types of people are usually also not the best when "bad" people come around to bend the purpose to their desires.
It is my dream to do some of it in the developing world too, if I were to visit someplace often to help out more. A church I used to attend was big on surfing and would take trips to a small town in Mexico. They build an orphanage, some living spaces for single mothers, drastically improved some schools amongst other things and I think that was an awesome way to do charity. There were a couple run-ins with smalltime cartel-ish activity (as they saw it as a power grab) but because everything was from church to church, most donations came in the form of infrastructure and supplies (no money to take), and the pastor was a bit crazy (he visits prisons often and can deal with the thug mindset) they allowed it continue.
I haven't had consistent or full-time work in tech in 2 years (1 year since any work, 8-9 years in tech before that)
I'm still doing software work related to activism, but I haven't been looking for paid work because the pickings are incredibly slim for work aligned with my values. I'm planning to get into rope access work in a few months.
I'm not going to stop working on software as long as I'm able to provide value beyond what AI tooling can do, but I'm not hopeful for a return to the industry when I'm so misaligned with Big Tech™.
I’d go into psychology research. I have some very low percentage chance mental health traits and there’s not many people studying what I have who have lived experience and are not too disabled to study it. I know I’d enjoy doing clinical work too, and often find my time not doing software is helping others and making community w those folks.
Sadly, I’m not wealthy enough to afford to reset like that, I’ll never be able to retire.
I'd be a cook/chef, which is what I decided on in HS, but I let everyone talk me into tech, which I regret in hindsight.
Interesting, why do you regret it?
I assume:
Why programmers like cooking: You peel the carrot, you chop the carrot, you put the carrot in the stew. You don’t suddenly find out that your peeler is several versions behind and they dropped support for carrots in 4.3
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/agv5ol/why...
and the CEO is now mandating everyone use Slam Chops and is expecting food to take half as long to make thanks to their ingenious idea
You guys are not wrong.
For many reasons, some of them I'm sure fall into the "grass is greener" category, but tech just hasn't been very satisfying. Sure, it pays the bills and parts of it I do find interesting, but it just pales compared to how satisfying it feels to cook and serve people good food.
I would probably be a NEET without partner and kids. I really like computers and it's what pulled me out of online multiplayer games. Without them,I would probably have succumbed to my high school burnout and not made any progress academically or professionally.
Nowadays, probably something in finances, I realized I could have enjoyed accounting or some work related to business finances, but this is something I learned while working, not before.
I’d probably become a chef - cooking has always felt like the most natural non-tech path for me. It’s a craft and a very creative process, with immediate, tangible results.
btw, I worked as a cook for a bit after school before transitioning into tech =)
Doctor. Still want to explore "systems" to diagnose issues and build plans for improvement.
When I was 45, I did briefly consider making the switch
As a med-school dropout, in his early 40s (left medicine two decades ago), I cannot even imagine having enough energy to even apply for medical school. At least in the United Hates of America, this is my jaded perspective.
I became an electrician, instead, with stints IBEW and self-employed residential. Lots of money-making opportunities, but lots of unlicensed competition from handymen that "know just enough to be dangerous" — most customers only care if the light turns on, not that it's long-term safe.
Are you self-employed now? Why stick with residential repair work instead of trying commercial or new construction?
I'm actually attempting to get into officework, somewhere. I can't do another twenty years of physical construction, whether in houses or factories.
>Are you self-employed now?
Yes, but I choose not to work regularly.
Fortunately, I have enough savings to not be too worried — presuming the economy picks up within the next few years (I can outlast this presidency, doing nothing).
Probably something blue collar like electrician, plumbing or auto repair.
I became a union electrician specifically to get away from tech and then found myself spending most of my apprenticeship wiring data centers.
Can't seem to escape from the tech gods.
Unfortunately blue collar labor takes its toll on bodies — probably best-left to hobby grunt work (and not full-time) unless you like back/knee/hip pain =D
I'm currently attempting to transition back into white collar tech (early 40s) but we all know how that's going (in this economy). Fortunately twisting wires together for decades has allowed me to stack enough savings that I'm not in a rush / desperate for re-training/employment.
Do I need to make money? If the answer is no, then I would do something physical and mindless like stocking shelves or landscaping.
If the answer is yes, I'll stick with software.
When I was in college I did residential landscaping in the summers, and in retrospect it was a good time.
I fully expected to age out of tech by the time I hit 40 (just hit 49, still in tech) -- so I do flight instruction, aircraft inspections and relocation. It's tech money but not tech consistency, and has basically pivoted my favorite hobby and turned it into a job, which has its own challenges.
I'm still building it out. Going for my Repair Station license next year and hoping to add pitot-static and transponder calibration to my services menu. I wrench on my own plane, but the liability exposure is insane, so I won't sign work for others.
It's really odd, but I think when I disclose this to my tech masters, there is something of a novelty value, and they appreciate that I can sling code... and also other things. That old "well rounded" trope I guess.
One of these or a mix of - history, archaeology, and literature. But as they say, you never know.
I absolutely knew even when I left school ("school" school) that none of these would pay, so I assume your question has an implicit "if money was no concern". Because money/job was the reason I picked engineering and CS in college. While I did quite well (academically and professionally), I never loved it. Maybe I liked it here and there. Then I knew this would happen; that's the reason I was at least prudent enough to never do that CS MS (with multiple options for full scholarships in Europe around a decade ago). But not prudent enough to explore masters in many of the non-STEM fields that were there for the taking pretty much. Some of those might have paired well with this STEM bachelors in some way or the other.
This thought experiment insinuates that not working in tech means infinite money or resources, which I realize is not the spirit of the question, but in the event that funding is of no consequence...
I would build sound systems. Huge ones, bigger than what's in my garage. Bone-shaking, yet clear as the pure blue sky
I would open a video store / computer lab / hangout for skaters, nerds and misfits
I would curate a library, with a point of view -- the most interesting ones are where the signal has been extricated from the noise and somebody wants you to see the world how they see the world
I would make a lot of things, physical and digital -- from 3D prints to woodworking to PCBs to strange websites and curious software
I would get a giant pizza oven and a huge cauldron and fuck around making pies and stews LOL
I would just do cool shit with my friends!
I basically do a lot of these things already in measured doses, in between begging, scraping, seeking, asking for, grabbing money; that whole pursuit is a great stick and carrot that keeps the human moving through life, but it's also kind of corrosive to the soul, and unavoidable if you want to participate in society.
Funny how when I re-read what I'm about to post (as a middle aged man), it sounds like the pipe dream of a 12 year old boy, some old loser who refuses to grow up lol
As a teen, I idolized guys like you who kept their passions alive. I’m 38 and hope I can keep mine up as well.
Before I got my degree I was a machinist/ millwright and doing various things in between. Took a break after covid to go back for a little to decompress from tech but inevitably came back to programming.
Love the work but hate the pay and toll it took on my body.
Carpentry is fun too but metal is better.
I’ve looked into putting together a small shop, but you’re right. Startup cost is really high, pay is shit.
I’ve made some interesting things in the past few years, in particular singing Tesla coils and digitally-controlled plasma tube lights. Was thinking about making bespoke musical instruments based on some of these learnings.
Of particular interest was some interesting types of feedback that came from the Tesla coils. Basically we modulated the frequency we drove the coils to produce sound, but the coils would interfere with one another because that’s how electromagnetism works. We had to tune them to different resonant frequencies to play sound. But the interference itself could sound unique and eerie, sometimes like an old-timey radio. It’s similar in principle to a theremin but a very different sound.
Or I could just get a soul sucking job and do this in early retirement. Shrug.
All the jobs I rather be doing are antiquated. Furniture maker but it’s not a viable job anymore either. A machinist, tool-die maker. Or mechanic maybe. I have always thought that mechanics are just debugging a very specific architecture. None of these make money though.
A friend of mine is getting ready to retire after 30-odd years in IT. He has already tooled up and trained for his retirement profession: farrier; the guy who makes and installs horse shoes. It's more profitable than it used to be since few people do it any more, and farriers typically work on their own schedule.
> Ford CEO says he has 5,000 open mechanic jobs with up to 6-figure salaries from the shortage of manually skilled workers: https://fortune.com/2025/11/12/ford-ceo-manufacturing-jobs-t...
"Up to" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Honestly, it seems to me that it's "undoing" a lot of work.
Labor Rate at dealerships around me are over $200/h. Granted the mechanic doesn't get 100% of that but 200 * 52 * 8 is nearly 600k. It seems like you could go somewhere else and get the same amount of money as Ford (or more) and don't need to worry about future salary increases not occurring.
The problem is that the mechanics are paid fixed hours for a given type of job (according to the dealership's standard for how long a given job should take). They are not truly being paid per hour. While it's supposed to encourage efficiency, you can imagine how this negatively affects the mechanics as well as the work quality outcomes.
I personally believe that life is better if you do what you are naturally good at versus something you're interested in. I was lucky that I am both good at and interested in tech.
The LSAT doesn't feel too difficult, especially the sections based around logical reasoning. So if I went back in time and tech somehow wasn't an option, law is probably where I'd be
I think I would enjoy building houses, or solar-battery-electrical installations. I like infrastructure (my favorite games include Factorio) and being able do that in the real world sounds both useful and enjoyable/satisfying.
If i could start over again i would love to work as forester. I even considered working as lumberjack. I got required certificates, im legally allowed to work in the industry doing sawork (as in, felling trees, even if not private property).
I know it is an highly physical demanding and also very risky job. Now that a second child arives, obviously, life changing again, i just cant do it, i need to feed two kinds soon and these kind of jobs are not well payed.
So ill stick to doing my own firewood once a year, a couple of days outside in the woods and keep dreaming about it.
Live goes by too fast.
I run a website that helps people settle in Berlin. It's been my full-time job for a few years now, although AI is slowly killing websites like mine now.
https://nicolasbouliane.com/projects/all-about-berlin
Binge watching Netflix and doom scrolling Insta-rcisst.
And once I had gotten over the anxiety and low self-esteem that I'd develop by engaging in these activities, probably become some kind of tech artist or simply be creativity for the sack of creating something.
No insta, no facebook, no twitter, more a reflection of what these technologies are doing to our "societies" or rather our "individualised groups of humans collectively doom-scrolling into global disaster of one kind or another".
I would have had almost no choice but to work for my father in the family rigging business, given that I was the first son of a first son. There's a good chance I'd be dead or severely disabled due to my lack of awareness (ADHD) of heavy machinery moving around me. If tech wasn't an option otherwise, I think I would have chosen to become an electrician—less chance of me becoming dead than moving machinery.
I'm currently incubating a sick twisted fantasy to run a handbuilt bicycle wheelbuilding store. If you asked me this question 20 years ago, the answer would be music teacher.
I could have been an academic or an activist. My son reactivated in me the "making" aspect of experimental physics that had a big impact on me despite doing theory for my PhD. (My son builds buildings by day, guitars by night)
In the last two years I've become a semi-pro photographer. I guess I am also an "activist" now but approach it as personal change [1] instead of interpersonal conflict.
[1] a kind of global "daoism" that embraces all kinds of human development
Physics, of course. Well, at least that is what I was doing before. If not that teaching. Math, physics, programming. I could teach any of that I guess
If it wasn’t about the money I would be a teacher of some kind.
When I’m retired I plan to get a part-time job as an usher at a theater, arena, concert hall, or stadium.
Another good option is to get a really low-stress job at a tropical resort. I can imagine running a little stand that rents out umbrellas and chairs on a beach. Or maybe walking around the beach selling ice cream out of a cart.
Really different questions with different answers.
If it were just for my own care-free leisure and benefit, I would probably go to school again and try some other academic path in math, physics or history. Or rekindle my CS study and do a phd - so many different interesting topics.
In the real world, as a parent with a huge mortgage? Pretty much anything. Janitorial work, insurance agent, landscaping, whatever.
I'd try and figure out how to make a living converting older, everyday cars/trucks to EVs. Restomod I guess; but not just classic sports cars and big trucks (though I love those too). I think a 1989 Mazda Protege deserves a new life as an affordable commuter car. Tape deck and all.
Probably Math and science teacher/professor.
I also could end up being happy in condensed matter physics, astrophysics, robotics, materials science, nano tech, optics, or RF. Some combination of engineering and science.
I love teaching and building things to help people. So there are a bunch of areas that would fit the bill here. I gravitate towards any tech that feels like magic.
My background is in computer science and philosophy. But philosophy was always about pure interest and not career prospect.
If I had to pivot in 2025, I’d probably go for psychology. I’m interested in that, I enjoy the idea of more directly helping people and have myself been tremendously helped by psychologists the past years.
Honestly want to be done working. I feel like I've spent an enormous amount of my life indoors, and there are so very few years left on the earth.
Probably electrical metrology. Though there are more jobs in dimensional metrology, and that's also interesting. Though I doubt the US is going to get more manufacturing if tech collapses, so that's not exactly a good backup plan.
There are two ways to answer this, one for what I'd intrinsically enjoy most, and one for what could be an equally lucrative career.
For the former, a repair/handyman. Hanging shelves, assembling ikea furniture, etc.
The latter is harder to answer, but probably something within the legal profession.
I'd probably be an electrician or fabrication (3D printing / CNC). Or does that count as tech?
Medicine, ideally Oncology. I only made that realization as an adult though.
Same. I’d like to get into medicine, but I’m 38. That ship has sailed.
I'd go back to civil engineering. Building things. Good, honest work.
If you're willing to take the paycut, there are still plenty of software-based jobs where you're still slowly building useful things.
I sometimes think of being a massage artist. It's relaxing and satisfying to massage people and feel the kinks and knots loosening. However I don't have the verbal skills to smalltalk. And I don't like dealing with people either.
I could imagine being a car mechanic or a welder. Repairing my car is a little hobby of mine and I could imagine doing that full time, if programming work would stop paying my bills.
what you building?
I'd become a neurosurgeon, always wanted to be since childhood for some reason. Maybe I drew inspiration from youtube watching those tumor removal videos.
I would be a failed science fiction / horror writer.
BEACH....BUM
Working in agriculture, as I have been really fascinated by growing stuff from the seed since I was a child.
I'd be a woodworker making cabinets and tables
If i didn't work in tech, I would work for tech.
I'm a linux user, but I hate that majority of MacOS apps/tools are Paid, and I want to change that
If money was not an issue, and I had all the time in this world, I'd start giving it all to Open-source software.
Starting with rewriting all the paid/subscription apps created for macOS.
For example, I'll create an exact replica of: - Alfred, Raycast, Bartender, BetterDisplayTool etc, but completely FOSS
Professor, writer, translator, a theologian... etc. Or maybe a sniper in the army.
Some form of building things in the physical world rather than the digital; probably working in construction since I already do it on the side.
im with you, im completely over digital at this point
I'm not at all, but if I had to leave it behind I'd just keep building offline exclusively instead of doing both.
CNC (and maybe some manual) Machining.
Same here. I worked as a sign maker in high school and I always wanted a CNC.
I'd run a chicken farm and a restaurant.
Probably be into some arts fields: writing, music, design.
Frankly I really don't know what id don't not in tech. Closest I van think of is some kind of mathematician but don't even know what those "jobs" look like. Academia might be another. But these are all tech adjacent aren't they?
Airline pilot. Respected, well paid, kind of cool.
Ag or musician.
Fly some drones, maybe thermal image wildlife
Electrician, some sort of doctor, or chef.
- Beekeeper
- Music producer
- Video director
- Astronomer/Physicist/Biologist
Most likely would be dead.
Audio Engineering and Production
I've considered switching to land surveying, machining or fabricating.
I just hate the direction the software industry has gone (and is going), and once I buy a house and get some savings I want to get out.
A plumber. Very resistant to AI.
Bus driver in SF or near a tech hub, so I can listen to mindless grifting and endless complaining by tech workers that would re-enforce the life decision I made.
If I take the question to mean: "you still have to work but you can't work in tech, what would you do?" I had thought about this around the time of the last layoffs that we had ... and I think I'd go to a trade school to become an electrician.
BUT ... to be 100% honest there's nothing I am really any good at other than tech. I guess I could try my hand at teaching. Would that be a good enough loop hole? I could maybe teach Econ 101 at a junior college probably. It'd be a huge pay cut but it'd be better than being jobless.
Regenerative farmer, tinkering with mycorrhizal fungi and other microbiology
Teach high school English.
Either scientist or chef
But i dont work in tech
Work in a taco shop.
Full stack engineer at IHOP?
I would farm. Probably vineyards and orchards. With big flower gardens.
If you've ever worked land, you'll know your boss is the weather and the seasons, and time.
It's good.
Electrician
I’d probably go into finance, law, or medicine. Most likely finance.
I specifically went away from it due to moral reasons but seems this society has no morals and never will. May as well just plunder the poor.
Don’t let the bastards win. Keep your principles
Art and cinema, if I can’t write code I’ll write stories instead and try to bring them to life.
Tech pervades all things. These days in particular it's impossible to do anything too well without advice from AI.
I could and I do daytrade options, which however is more tech than tech itself, whether by hand or by a bot.
I would however like to be a consulting speaker, but the research for it can't really be done without a steady and heavy dose of tech.
Soon we will all find it out.
If I don’t have to deal anymore with SopraSteria, perhaps the world would be better thanks to AI.
not a communist, but the communist manifesto articulated this problem very well in people end up doing work that does not matter to them because of capitalism. imagine a world, where people do that, they are passionate about and not have to worry about basic means and even some wants (entertainment, comfort living etc). a world of abundance for everyone where people just do what they are super passionate about. will AI help towards that or not is a big question.
name one pure communist country that has thrived. China has 516 billionaires.