> These days I'm a handyman. Carpentry, plumbing, painting. Stuff like that.

I've thought of doing this myself. I've been DIY remodeling my 100+yo house room by room while preserving the "period" style and have done a credible job and learned a ton. Planning, floor refinishing, plaster and drywall repair, painting, trim work, light electrical, and lately just a bit of plumbing.

I've found that making something that has the attributes 1) you can be proud of your workmanship, 2) you'll enjoy using yourself for a long time, and 3) other people after you may enjoy for decades, perhaps a century more, is incredibly rewarding. People I've known in construction have told me that they feel good when they can drive by a building, point to it, and say "I helped make that."

I've no idea how one would break into the business though. I'm imagining long apprenticeships ...

Can you be more specific about what you mean when you say “I watched those around me rot”? Was it just a case of people not taking care of themselves?

>I watched myself and those around me rot, in body and mind. That is some fucked up morlock shit right there.

Basically captures how I feel.

Same. Thanks for starting the thread - I've been thinking about leaving too.

But still on HN?

? HN is a tech news aggregator. It collides often with pure programming but reading HN === buying into office programming lifestyle.

No man, that's a cheeto-induced hallucination

Don't get me wrong. I just found it weird as I thought if I personally wanted to quit tech I'd want to stop reading HN as well.