It's not just tech workers. More people are going back to retro tech. Physical media instead of streaming, one device one function no internet, that kind of thing.

Everyone, in tech, from different cultures, different backgrounds, will have this urge, myself included. Had this discussion many times with different coworkers.

It was a thing in Ukraine during the 2020-2021 boom. the sheer amount of engineers who saved up enough money to buy a house in the nearby village communities before the 2022 invasion was legit insane. part of that was remote work, part of that was interest in growing your own things. i remember talking to one NLP engineer who legit planned an apple garden and wanted to transition into that business domain over time. in some other cases, folks wanted to have self-reliant sustainability (yeah, we kinda had doomsday preppers).

Can confirm 100.42%

30+ years experience with computing, and I hate them.

They only ever do what you tell them to, and they’re not even doing that anymore.

Sort of

I still love open source software and tinkering and building my own software

Anything closed source can go pound a bag of dicks

I dream of quitting my job owning a game every day. Been in tech for 20 years. Would likely still have a gaming rig, but if I could never work on software again, and could sustain myself and my family, I would take that in a heart beat.

Agree with the sentiment. Solar and print farms might be part of the picture though.

Confirmed.

I'm halfway there having a farm but still required to have a tech job to sustain life.

Hoping to retire in 3-4 years though and after that I'm getting say in to growing my own food.

Yeah. But I think most of us would only last 2 days on a farm, and then come screaming back to comfortable office life.

I work I tech and have a small nature sanctuary. Why not both? We get high speed internet out here now 🤣

I don't want any sort of device or appliance in my home that requires an internet connection that doesn't get a long time of security updates. My old printer died and they're so bad now I just don't have one. I'm going back to a dumb flip phone because this one's battery s dying. I use everything I can without spending money because I've never had a lot to spend to try and maintain my privacy. I keep spam email for the random site that wants you to enter one. The IoT is cancerous, it creates huge security holes because these appliance manufacturers don't care about security one iota. I have worked in IT for 15 years professionally with over that personal experience. I hate what the internet has become, I want something more akin to the 2000s back or at least the scrubbing of corporate mandates cut out. It's actually more dangerous to be on it because of advertisements. I would still have internet and gaming PCs regardless, but I want tech that's basic and functional.

Yep. I've middle aged coworkers who are saying quite emphatically that they can't imagine retiring in tech -- they know they'll need to move to another industry well before retirement, in part because of AI reducing the need for certain skillsets. They also know they're too old to be considered a 'good hire' due to ageism in tech. Most seem to have made plans to try and move on to something relatively low skill for the last part of their working lives. I know one of their plans is to do a food truck.

I disagree. 20 plus years in tech. Never wanted a farm, and I still love tech.

When I started my career in IT I consciously started keeping a variety of backup careers in mind, and I intentionally keep my expenses where I could simply swap careers and make it all work financially.

Probably my most viable backup plan is to move into banking or finance. Decent money available there, still tickles the part of my brain that loves understanding numbers and processes while also working my brain entirely differently than troubleshooting network problems. Data science, HIT and HRIT are also options in considering if I want to stay in the realm of IT, but that depends on how burnt out I get really

In my personal life I've been picking up more off-screen hobbies to help stave off burnout among other reasons. I'm hoping career-wise I can promote myself into management before I get too burnt out, but you never know

Tech workers is like the majority of fediverse. You won't run out of people to ask.

Edit: A friend of mine working in IT mentioned that his ex-boss retired and then became a children's book writer. If financial constraint isn't an issue, I would be a polymath and travel to learn more about the world. That was actually the point of education is to be a more well rounded person.

Worked in tech for 18 years, now I fix rust old cars and try not to touch computers beyond looking up wiring diagrams and replacement parts.

True. I am eyeing woodworking more every day.

Fuck no.

Stardew Valley in a nutshell

I don't even work in tech but I want this more and more each, I blame it on society getter consistently worse each year.

A tech job to fund a pivot into ranching sounds like a fun plan

YES

No, I really can’t.

Can confirm.

Yep, absolutely

Nah, I just want to retire not live on a farm. The last place I'd ever want to live on this earth is a rural community, I've tried. It is terrible.

Andre Staltz, who developed manyverse, posted recently showing himself working in construction https://bsky.app/profile/staltz.com/post/3m6qwv56xyc2v

I think he is still coding too, but it is cool to see how people balance it out.

I'm retiring from an IT position with a public college at the end of the month. I sure AF don't plan on doing any programming for shits 'n' giggles.

I think most people feel like Ron at the end of office space.

Meh.

If you're in a toxic workplace, sure. If you're in a workplace that lets you have fun with your work, learn, discover new things and tinker - the 9000th day is exactly as exciting as the 9th day on the job.