That depends. I’m only interested in doing stuff I want to do; the way I want to do it.

Most of that stuff is now water under the bridge. I’m pretty hesitant to get into the industry, in its current state. Not much fun to be had.

I’m already committed to working on a nonprofit, but we’ll see how that develops.

You’re mindset sounds so similar to mine it’s eerie. Good luck with your endeavors.

“I only want to do what I want to do,” is pretty self-limiting.

Not only does it cut off any way for you to grow, it makes it hard for companies to hire you over programmers willing to do anything. And I don’t mean that in a bad way but a realistic way - companies hire and want to keep you on but know you’re not going to be interested in any of their projects so the time investment has been wasted.

Bingo. See "not looking for work," above.

When I first left my job, I was insecure, and companies could have taken advantage of that.

No more.

Oh, yeah...

To the "Mike" that sent me that wonderful little note:

I replied, then realized that you had used a honeypot email as the address, so I'll post what I wrote here. It would have gone to your email, otherwise. I would like to mention that I stand behind every post I make, and every email I send. I deleted my last anonymous account many moons ago.

> You still sound insecure.

:)

Probably. It's not your problem, though. It's mine. I am constantly working on that.

I will say that it was pretty devastating to get assaulted for my age. It totally rocked my world. I'm definitely still recovering from that, and I am still quite angry about it.

Thanks (really) for taking the time to look at my HN page and sending this. I regularly get attacked by some pretty savage folks (comes from the NPO work I do), so your note doesn't bother me at all.

Heck, maybe we have a lot in common. You know where to reach me. I'm a pretty decent chap.

This is my personal email.

Stay safe.

Oh, that's good, I have worked with nonprofits in the past to good outcomes.

NPOs can be crazy places, though.

Can be fun, once you get past the urges to strangle people...

Have you ever considered working in government? The pay isn't the best, but the work can be satisfying. I'm specifically thinking about the US Digital Service.

I'll have to look at that. Right now, government work is profoundly unattractive to me. It seems that every single branch has become a political weapon. My father was in the CIA, and became quite disillusioned, for exactly that reason.

I've linked his eulogy before. He was an interesting chap: http://cmarshall.com/miscellaneous/MikeMarshall.htm

I have been doing a lot of work for mutual aid organizations, and my work has had some tremendous impact. I seem to be able to make a difference, there.

I'm into technical writing, too! What are you working on?

You can look at my GH ID to see the organizations I work in: https://github.com/ChrisMarshallNY

Also, you can look at my SO Story, for a fuller (and longer) picture: https://stackoverflow.com/story/chrismarshall

TL;DR. I stay busy.