Dropping out

I recently read that NBA Hall of Famer Dave Cowens left the Celtics mid-season one year to go drive a cab (he was suffering burnout and took the time to “clear his head”). That story reminded me of two tales of internet vets who left the industry to work decidely different jobs:

Frank Duff wrote A Coder in Courierland.

Once upon a time, I was a coder not unlike yourself. My day consisted of coffee, perl and java hacking, meetings, and e-mail. I had a cubicle with fluorescent lighting, my own bookshelf and two computers. And I traded it all in…

I can easily say that couriering is the best job i have ever had (and I have more than a few eclectic jobs on my resume). It is fun, the people are friendly, the stress is almost non-existent, it keeps you in excellent shape, and you spend most of your time outside (although this isn’t really a year-round plus in Toronto). And, even considering the fact that my pay as a courier is between half and two thirds what it was as a coder, it is a rare day that I seriously consider going back.

Scott Heiferman, now CEO of Meetup, wrote i was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work the counter at mcdonald’s.

i spend a lot of time with bankers, lawyers, internet freaks, corporate wonks, and other people living strange lives. as a good marketing guy, that’s a bad thing. and as a practicing anti-consumerist, that’s a bad thing. i got a job at mcdonald’s to help get back in touch with the real world. also, after over 6 grueling years in the internet whirlwind, i wanted to experience a profitable, well-oiled, multi-billion-dollar machine. and i deserved a break today…

i’ve been taught countless times the value of a leader/manager showing appreciation for people’s effort. however, my instinct has often been that showing appreciation really isn’t too necessary for good people. they just take pride in a job well done — and, anyway, they can read my mind and see the appreciation. well, from day 1 at mcdonald’s, i was yearning for someone there to say “thanks”. even a “you’re doing ok” would suffice. but, no. neither management experience — nor reading about management — teaches this lesson as well as being an under-appreciated employee.

Matt Linderman wrote this on Nov 16 2006 There are 14 comments.

brad

on 16 Nov 06

I’ve made a few major career/job changes like that in my life, and while the shakeup was a great experience I do sometimes think of what it cost me. Not in terms of money but in terms of building the expertise and experience it takes to get to the top of your game. That can take years, and if you’re always starting over from scratch you may never get to the point where you have the satisfaction of doing your job at the highest level of engagement and effectiveness. I’ve been struggling a lot with burnout lately, having been in the same job for 10 years now, but instead of just leaving and doing something different (as has been my pattern in the past), I’m determined to dig in and get more out of the job I have now. There are ways to make any job more engaging, interesting, and fulfilling, you just have to figure out how to make it happen. I’ve worked as a dishwasher, factory worker, landscaper, and furniture mover, and never managed to get bored with those jobs.

Pete

I worked in McDonalds for a little while while a couple of years ago. I was at Uni and I cant say as it’s the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had. Working as an in house Graphic Designer I can see the appeal of turning my back on the meetings with the boss, conversations with the sales department, constant emails and worn out eyes in favour of something a little simpler and less stressful. Then i cast my mind back to that time I was working in McDonalds and think to myself “dont be stupid”.

Easily the least rewarding job I’ve had, good if you want to meet some of the pannets rudest people though.

Ben

I too, can relate to the experience of drastically shifting courses and the joys of “simple” labor. I spent a few months last year doing construction. Some of the best times I’ve had in years. Hard work. Sweat. The great outdoors. And REAL, physical results. It was an epiphany after working on a computer day in and day out. I loved it! It’s a paradox though, because I don’t really want to do it for the rest of my life. But I did feel more alive and enriched on a day-to-day basis than I do in front of a computer.

Isaac Weinhausen

Thanks for posting those drop-out examples! It’s a wonderful reminder that position and power is not everything in a job. I’ve found that trust in the Lord, humility, passion, and a value for experiences can lead one to make very counter-cultural job decisions. The result can be very satisfying and, yes, even career-advancing.

Tom

Amen….

But I wouldn’t necessarily call it ‘dropping out’ – but, rather, ‘tuning in.’ Focus on what you love to do, not on what is expected of you.

The old saying comes to mind (and I’m poorly paraphrasing)... ‘do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.’

Larry

“I often describe myself as a chronically lazy person, but to be honest, I don’t mind working. I simply hate working under an oppressive structure. As a coder, I would find myself slacking off just because the environment gave me no motivation to work hard. And at the same time, I hated the obligation to look busy from nine to five, regardless of how much actual work their was to do. And I hated working in a cubicle ten meters from my supervisor’s office.”

This pretty much sums up everything I despise about corporate culture. I’d guess every developer who’s every worked in a similar environment can empathize.

erik

I took a break from being a freelance developer to clean office buildings at night. The experience was invaluable.

And to boot, I’m now obsessive about pushing my chair in all the way and pulling my trash can out from under my desk. Just to make life a little easier for an invisible person.

Alex Bunardzic

“And to boot, I’m now obsessive about pushing my chair in all the way and pulling my trash can out from under my desk. Just to make life a little easier for an invisible person.”

Thanks for pointing this out, erik. Foolishly, I wasn’t aware of that, but from now on this is going to be my habitual routine at the end of the day.

Thanks again!

Alex

Matt

A great story like this is in Tracy Kidder’s Pulitzer-prize winning The Soul of a New Machine, a “literary journalism” piece about a bunch of hardware hackers trying to create a new minicomputer in the 70s.

This was back when developing the hardwave involved creating wire-wrapped prototypes, testing circuits, and trying to track down microsecond- and nanosecond-level mistimings and race conditions.

At one point one in this grueling, maddening debugging process, of the engineers just disappeared. They found a note taped to his desk:

“I am moving to a commune in Vermont, and I will no longer deal with any unit of time smaller than a season.”

josh

on 17 Nov 06

About five years ago I was so burned out on programming that I couldn’t bear the thought of coding anymore. But my mortgage wouldn’t let me go work at a McJob, so I shifted to something that was still technical but wasn’t a programming job. I took a gig as a tech writer for two years, and it was the best thing I’d done for my career in ages. It gave me a different perspective on the software development process, and a new appreciation for the customer’s point of view. I also learned a lot about internet software, which let me move into web development when I went back to programming.

Peter Cooper

Meg Hourihan, one of the founders of Blogger, went on to become a chef (or something like that), and seemingly loves it.

L.

See also JWZ. (From programming at Netscape to running a nightclub.

Ben Darlow

Funnily enough, I met somebody whose story isn’t too dissimilar to this a couple of months ago; I needed to hire a van with a driver to collect a new desk from Ikea (because Ikea’s hopeless system is not only expensive, but only lets you specify within half a day when you’d like your item delivered) and I stumbled upon Friendly Movers. The guy who runs it is a former developer and all-round good egg. I guess that there’s something going on with Maslow’s pyramid of needs here; so long as your basic needs are being met, why not do some job you’d never otherwise consider in order to escape the stresses of this trade of ours?

David Mabury

I’m sure he meant well, but there’s something a little patronizing in Scott Heiferman’s comment about getting “back in touch with the real world.” It smacks of the old “noble savage” conceit. Somewhere out there are honest yeomen plodding through their shifts at fast-food joints for minimum wage, and they’re just pants-soakingly eager to share their simple folk wisdom with slumming dot-commers.

I worked in similar entry-level jobs as a college kid, and that world is no more real, authentic, or satisfying than the career world to which I happily fled.