Ask HN: If you were financially independent in your 20s, would you be in tech?

It could also be solo projects, the state of the source would be irrelevant there, ignoring any philosophical beliefs. Make something I want to exist and put it out there for people to use as-is. If they find it useful/enjoyable and want to use it, cool. If not, that’s fine too.

> Personally, there’s something about people using code that I wrote that gives me a special feeling. Something that I will almost never feel in corp programming/swe.

Same. I usually like helping people solve problems. I see someone struggling, come up with an idea on how they can struggle less, then make it happen. I was able to do this in my corp job for many years, it’s how I transitions from a sys admin to a swe. It was nice, because the people I was making stuff for weren’t demanding, they appreciated the stuff I was giving them, and it was all at my own pace. I did turn stuff around fast, but the drive wasn’t their demands, it was my desire to help them.

Now they have me making stuff on insane deadlines, that makes things harder instead of easier, all feedback is negative, and suggestions to make things better are ignored or punished.

I miss that old era a lot. During those times, I used to say if I won the lotto I would keep working for quite a while. I enjoyed helping people and it was low stress. Now… ugh.

As for what people with high paying jobs do for leisure, the list of answers is very long because they can afford a wide variety of leisure activities. It is largely identical to (though possibly shorter than) the list of leisure activities that a person could enjoy if they do not need a high paying job to afford them.