Yep. I did seven years of Slog, and quitting was very freeing, after years of angst and disappointment.

What did you do after?

If I give up on this, I'm not sure I'd want to do it again. I don't know what I'd do differently. Building an app and all the non-programming junk that goes into running a business is just a lot. I could rise the corporate ladder. I'd be fine but never rich.

Engineering at a much more mature company. It won’t make me rich (especially considering the stock’s dreary trajectory since 2021) but it’s a lot less depressing nevertheless.

Working at a corporation and making a reasonable engineer's salary will make you basically rich. Not like rule-the-world rich, but rich enough to do anything you ever wanted, which I think is pretty much as rich as anybody needs to be.

I'm experiencing this now since I've been doing both for awhile now. It's enough to not worry whether or not I should buy that $10 beer with my dinner but not enough that I don't have to debate with myself if I should be ordering 2 or 3 of those $18 cocktails every day on my first ever euro trip. Not a bad life for sure but there's quite a few things that still feel out of reach. Like private jets or even just first class

Yeah but like.. who gives a fuck about private jets? It's a good way to burn money and be more wasteful at the same time, great.

First class, meh. I could afford it if it was something I wanted to spend money on, but it feels pointless.

We could sell, but like $50K for 9 years of work is so sad.

You only, well, live once. Will you be happier staying or leaving? There is a lot more to life than grinding away at a project.