Finally Out
Can I walk the walk for all the talk I talk?
I did it. After a decade of being on a payroll I quit what most chumps would consider a comfortable tech job.
I was sick of wearing the obedient employee masquerade in exchange for cold money while life passed me by. I’ve got better places to wander around, nicer people to be with, and plenty of ideas to shape, so here’s where I start anew.
But this is not a sudden action, I’ve been planning my return to freedom for years. In fact, I’d started working on my own long before my move to the North, when I was captured again by the nine-to-five monster. I attempted my first escape in 2018 and got some interesting clients—including one on Museum Mile, in Manhattan’s Upper East Side—but the government shutdown of 2018–2019 shook things a bit and I took a full-time gig at an early-stage startup.
I spent a year and half there, built their product from zero, and when the people running the show raised a few million bucks from some deep pockets and turned the arrogant-son-of-a-bitch-capitalist dial to the max I knew it was my time to walk out. That was early 2020 and a certain pandemic was just getting started.
Well done, contumacious rat, I realized thirty seconds later, horrendous timing skills.
That’s when for a final time—dear Satan, I hope so—I went through the standard mating rituals to get a position at another teeny startup to ride the storm, and what a storm it’s been. I did my usual best and spent a few months turning a messy codebase into a solid, production-ready application.
About two o’clock last Tuesday I resigned. Man, it felt so good.
I see dead squirrels
For the next few months I’ll focus on a couple of projects I’ve been cooking up for a while. One of them involves writing—I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with my drivel—and the other has to do with software, finances and squirrels.
I’m also setting aside some hours in case some interesting contract work shows up.
But generally I’m okay with meandering—I’ve had enough of the everyday pressure and rushing—and augur gales of merriment so I’ll keep you all updated, my three dear readers.
As for you, monkey wrenches, I’m ready, you suckers, give me your best shot.