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Comment by ericmcer | Hacker News Reader

A career change is really attractive but adjusting salary expectations is brutal. Skilled jobs I was interested in and assumed were making $30+ an hour I looked into and found they are closer to $18-20/hr. After tech gigs making 250k+ with equity it is a pretty brutal downgrade.

My interest is in starting an all electric gardening company, electric tools have caught up to gas ones, they are almost silent and have 0 emissions. If you live in the suburbs you will know that gas blowers are the death of quiet afternoons and I am not sure why the transition to electric is taking so long.

It would just require a large initial investment followed by a huge pay cut and the uncertainty of being able to build it into something larger :P.

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yep!

I wonder if you could start by buying the equipment, and popping fliers around your neighborhood, and doing the work yourself nights-and-weekends, sorta dog-food your own business, until it's stable enough to hire a neighborhood kid to do the work for you.

I mowed lawns and shoveled driveways growing up (suburban kid) and found it to be rather enjoyable and satisfying.

But yeah, tech salaries have been drafting on the VC over-investment for a while. I was never at $250k+ with equity, but it's a bitter pill to swallow.

In some ways, though, it'll build empathy for how the rest of the world lives/works.

Earning so much money doing nothing more difficult then pressing buttons on a box is pretty cool.

Seattle is moving towards a ban on gas blowers, I cannot wait.

A few places have done this and the best part is the lawn companies don't mind because the electric blowers are really good anyway

I bought a house a few years ago and got all electric yard tools (mower, trimmer, blower, and more - all Ego). They're a joy to use. Such a step up from the gas tools of my youth.

Burlington VT banned gas leaf blowers but also defunded the police so… yeah, no change.

Citizen's arrest!

Great way to get shot and/or hauled in for false imprisonment

I am also one that doesn’t really enjoy total specialization but every single thing I can come up with, looks like a hobby compared to being a developer financially.

Agreed, I'm probably past the point where I could make a jump into the career area I wish I had gone into with hindsight (forest ranger, fisheries & wildlife, land management for land trusts, etc), but if I was <= 35 I would consider it. However at the age of 41 I've crossed into the 250k+ total comp territory and it's hard to imagine taking that significant pay decrease and making a move where I'm at the bottom of the ladder.

Maybe it depends how you view it (and your financial position, obviously high income doesn't necessarily mean any saved/significant assets) - one could think of it like early retirement, not a career change and pay cut, but something to occupy some time, do for interest/meet people/see things/be outdoors, etc.

(By the way, as an almost 30yo SE with a younger brother doing exactly what you describe... I'm not sure quite how to feel!)

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