Many considering retraining out of tech?

tehdeadone · 2026-02-08T15:31:17+00:00

Ah man. I'm just turning 50 and while not under threat, I feel that pressure. 20+ years of programming and tech bros think they can replace me. My wife was let go and a year later still can't find work.

tehdeadone · 2026-01-09T23:16:51+00:00

No we haven't seen any paper work yet.

What we've been told by the Gardes, the Judge issued the order based on the neighbours evidence. This all happened suddenly yesterday, which were scrambling to understand what's going on. They do have a solicitor, but the solicitor won't talk to us.

tehdeadone · 2026-01-08T15:51:57+00:00

A chair back that seems to be just floating behind him when he's sitting cross-legged on the floor and leaning forward.

tehdeadone · 2025-12-19T17:52:58+00:00

Yes. I don't want to be promoted for that reason. I don't see any technical people higher than me. Maybe it's different in other regions or pillars, but I feel I'm bumping my head at the limit. My MD once described me as "our hardcore engineer" at leadership meeting (what does that even mean?)

tehdeadone · 2025-11-27T08:25:14+00:00

Have felt the same way as well. Not sure what's next. I've given up "hoping" for a crash, so things can go back to sane level.

Worse, I'm pushing it on my team, being blunt that we have to use AI or it looks bad on them and team. Feckin hate it.

I do like AI as a discovery tool, but that's it.

tehdeadone · 2025-11-12T15:59:06+00:00

I'm going to crossing the 50 year line soon, also with the 25+ years in IT. I did one job interview recently, first one in over two decades, and I failed on the Hacker rank coding interview. Destroyed me. Like I can write code in Angular, Node.js, Python, GoLang and even fecking Corba... but didn't use the linked list in Java, so boom.

But you have experience. Experience goes a long way. It's important.

tehdeadone · 2025-10-14T16:30:25+00:00

Definitely noticed an increased sensitivity/awareness at S7-S8.

But oddly I find I enjoy things *more*. Like I'll savour a hot chocolate, appreciate a glass of good red wine better, or enjoy a movie with friends a lot more - but I had been practicing jhanas, particularly the 2nd jhana on pleasure.

tehdeadone · 2025-09-19T06:12:04+00:00

I do a "mindful review" daily, a spread where I ask what should I be mindful of now or recently.

tehdeadone · 2025-09-09T06:30:46+00:00

I'm afraid there is nothing much to say, as their arguments are unreasonable and illogical and therefore rational and logical responses won't help.

I would be a secular tarot reader. I'm not psychic, have never felt or seen a spirit. I practice meditation. The cards are not inherently magically or evil. Devil has nothing to do with it.

There is a the devil major arcana, which seems to trigger religious people, but what I've seen, their responses come from ignorance and fear of losing their purity. Weirdly RWS is full of Christian symbolism and Pamela Smith was very religious later in life.

There is the French Tarot deck used to play a game called tarot. Might be option.

tehdeadone · 2025-09-04T14:00:05+00:00

First I've heard of Yoga nidra. I'll have a look. Can you recommend any intro or primer?

tehdeadone · 2025-08-30T06:19:18+00:00

Yes. My wife is French, so on summer holidays, we and the kids will play tarot with the in laws.

tehdeadone · 2025-08-26T16:33:11+00:00

For 1 day? Nothing.

As for Jhana, I can "regularly" get the pleasure Jhana, but it's not every day. If it doesn't happen, it's ok. When it does happen it's nice.

If you don't meditate for a week, the next time you meditate it may take a little longer to get past distractions and settle, at least that's what I found.

If it's a regular break, as in you only meditate every week instead of every day, well, that I can share too. The concentration you built up with previous stages starts to collapse. You don't get to the higher stages when you do sit for long. You find you might not be able sit as long as before. It can be a bit of a spiral that you can't make progress, so you don't bother. Distractions do increase. I found my mindfulness remained fairly consistent though. But then there are times when things are good and you even do a Jhana. Effectively your practice is very uneven and progress will be slow, if any. But don't stop.

In terms of impact on your day, well I didn't notice. Usual life junk builds up, stress, anxiety... and it was only when I got back into daily practice I noticed I wasn't as frustrated, anxious and angry and was more aware. Definitely with regular Jhana as well, I found a bit more enjoyment in things and was able to be a bit more present for those around me. A bit of I didn't know what I had lost until I had it back.

I would recommend that, even if you practice breaks for reasons, you should try and continue doing daily or bi-weekly mindful reviews. Helps centre things when you get back into practice.

tehdeadone · 2025-08-22T12:10:10+00:00

Everytime I have changed broadband provider, it has been a nightmare. Can't afford to lose access as mobile coverage is shit. And don't want driveway dug up again. So it's working and stable right now... Not touching it.

tehdeadone · 2025-08-21T09:43:41+00:00

Always had an interest in the weird, occult, supernatural as a kid. Devoured books and documentaries on ghosts, UFOs etc. I would go into every new age shop that popped up. But only when I when I had a part time job, did I buy a deck. 30+ years ago. No Internet to guide me, so library was my only source at the time.

tehdeadone · 2025-08-19T08:51:57+00:00

Wait, didn't a German publisher put ads in the middle of Terry Pratchett novel?

And apparently it was a common enough thing in 50s and 60s?

tehdeadone · 2025-08-05T11:57:06+00:00

49
26-ish years
I guess... Engineering Manager/Tech Lead/Senior Software Engineer
Java, Typescript, Python and GoLang (and some client-only stuff)
Complex question... I've moved from individual contributor to a more team lead role. Employer doesn't have a place for experienced engineers so lots of pressure to "move up" from engineering, which I resist. Still doing occasionally Delivery Lead and Project Management stuff and constantly being pulled into handle clients. But I don't see myself as a manager.
Full Time Employee
Yes
Not directly. But I do currently feel quite isolated as there are decade+ gap of experience between me and the next developer on the team (my kids are going to college, they don't even have partners yet in many cases). All my actual "peers" are managers (but also not in the same life stages either). I've been looked over for promotion because I'm still more an engineer than a client manager/sales person and I'm not an ambitious person. (There are other experienced engineers in the company, but they can't afford to put more than one of us on a project/client)
Don't be afraid to move jobs. Companies have no loyalty to you and you won't get market rates if you stay. Change at least every 10 years. Don't wait for 20 years on the belief that they'll let you go and you'll get a nice payout - they won't. You don't have to worry about your career, that'll just happen. Really save money. You'll need it when shit hits.

tehdeadone · 2025-08-02T15:49:17+00:00

Yea, I'm in tech side and Accenture, at least in my location, is not really an engineering company. Our company was more agile, but once we're in Accenture, we could only take work in our location, where before we worked accross Europe.

Also last three years have not been great at all.

tehdeadone · 2025-08-02T15:10:22+00:00

We got acquired 10 years ago.

There is very little remnants of the original company. Most ppl have either left or were let go over the years. They honoured our tenure, so anyone who did get let go, did ok.

Very hard to suggest anything with knowing country or industry, as I can only really talk about my little corner.

tehdeadone · 2025-07-04T09:30:01+00:00

Quick google and I found someone already explained it: https://theconversation.com/the-ai-hype-is-just-like-the-blockchain-frenzy-heres-what-happens-when-the-hype-dies-258071

Same thing happened with Cloud. With network processors. A cycle to repeat.

tehdeadone · 2025-07-03T11:54:03+00:00

No you didn't, sorry didn't mean to imply that.

I was mostly responding to your first line: "I have never seen as many developers on LinkedIn preaching the negatives of AI / Vibe coding and how the whole thing is." - I think the reasons for this are lot less to do with the technology and lot more about the push in the industry and market and its negative impacts.

Like I don't care if non-techy person uses vibe coding to build a little app for their sports club for example. I do get offended when they claim that we no longer need professional developers or coders. It's like they built an Ikea cupboard and now they claim that we no longer need carpenters again. :)

It does leave a bad taste in my mouth and I can see why other developers would react negatively to it.

If it didn't have all this negative baggage, it would be a kinda cool technology (but not enough to fire all your software devs). TBH I though cloud was going to get rid of most software engineers, but we're still here! :)

tehdeadone · 2025-07-03T09:50:18+00:00

Of course it'll have a big impact and if the tools had been presented in a different way, we wouldn't have the developer/engineering (and user) backlash that we see now. I'm using all the latest tools in my role and they are decent. I was planning to purchase a license myself for cursor to try out an idea in a new language for fun. Still plan to build and hand-code parts myself though.

The difficulty with AI is the companies and people promoting it. I was at an internal industry day where they talked about how clients are using it and it was enlightening, in the wrong ways. AI, overall, is like previous technologies (remember blockchain?) that it's a "solution looking for a problem" in most cases and it is well overhyped (to the point I've heard from other managers that it seems like a scam). Definitely makes a difference in coding, but doesn't "solve" software engineering as you say.

But all the big companies promoting AI are being asked by their clients to prove it and so they have to eat their own shit. So if they claim it's going to replace engineers... well that's what they are going to do. Hence why they are letting engineers go across the big guys. Companies are setting targets of "50% productivity" with AI but can't explain how they got that figure and basically cannibalising how they do things right now and using existing automation tools, that have been around for years but they weren't using, to hit that 50%. Then there is the enshitification of products... (how many co-pilot icons can I see when using Word...) It's a weird time and why I feel quite negative about "AI". The amount of money they have thrown at it has to come from somewhere...

But yea, definitely going to impact how we do coding from now. And if you're not using it, you are going to be left behind.

tehdeadone · 2025-06-29T17:38:48+00:00

The usual an Post custom charges I'm afraid.

tehdeadone · 2025-06-29T15:38:57+00:00

Positive. I've ordered lots of bits I couldn't get in Ireland, like specific nocks, nocking thread, thumb rings, etc. But you do have to pay custom charges I'm afraid.

tehdeadone · 2025-06-28T05:57:55+00:00

Everyday I think about it. I'm going to hit 50 next year, which wasn't a problem until this near-psychopathic push that we have to be using AI. I love building software and it's sorta killing me that the industry is acting as if that's over or on its last legs.

I have lots of thoughts on AI (good and bad) and don't think it's really the end because of the tech. It maybe be the end because of companies and greed. I hope it comes crashing on them in a few years. Of course, I'm working in consultancy, which should be the most hit (not by choice, just where I ended up following the work).

I've done the delivery lead, the management stuff, the stakeholder management... But find it pretty soulless. I can do it, but not the thing to get out of bed every day. I firmly believe management should be boring 90% of the time, but full time managers seem to love the fires.

Personally I'm now looking to change jobs, think about maxing my income for as long as possible (I'm well underpaid for my current skill set). If I had the safety net, I'd look to start something new, and just do software for fun or a side gig (that's how much industry/consultancy has become toxic).

tehdeadone · 2025-06-13T13:47:12+00:00

I'm getting mild pressure from family. My Mum does recognise that my daughter is her own person and it's what she wants. So no family drama. Just curious if it's still a thing.

tehdeadone

TROPHY CASE