Re-posting from a similar answer I gave in another thread:
Yep, still happy with the decision. A lot of my comp at Google was stock, so I would have made a lot from the stock price movement over the last six years, and I'm a bit envious of that, but still yes.
I do still love the independence of working for myself, so I'm happy to have had the last six years of that rather than feeling unfulfilled at Google.
With everything shifting around AI, and big tech could be doing massive dev layoffs in the next five years. Given that risk, I'm happy to have experience as a founder rather than a dev who could be laid off immediately in a down market.
Definitely richer. I'm glad I did it, and it was so much more meaningful than the work I did at Google or any previous job.
>What's next for you?
My wife and I just had our first child over the summer, so I'm mostly on paternity leave to enjoy time with my family, but I'm slowly easing back into work. My next project is a book about what I've learned about writing effectively as a software developer.[0] Eventually, I'd like to try building a SaaS, but working on a book is much friendlier to an unpredictable work schedule at the moment.
No, nobody's ever really reached out about consulting/speaking. I haven't pursued it either, as I prefer to have products rather than making money from one-off jobs.
Yep, still happy with the decision. A lot of my comp at Google was stock, so I would have made a lot from the stock price movement over the last six years, and I'm a bit envious of that, but still yes.
I do still love the independence of working for myself, so I'm happy to have had the last six years of that rather than feeling unfulfilled at Google.
With everything shifting around AI, and big tech could be doing massive dev layoffs in the next five years. Given that risk, I'm happy to have experience as a founder rather than a dev who could be laid off immediately in a down market.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42126800
>Do you feel richer or poorer for the experience?
Definitely richer. I'm glad I did it, and it was so much more meaningful than the work I did at Google or any previous job.
>What's next for you?
My wife and I just had our first child over the summer, so I'm mostly on paternity leave to enjoy time with my family, but I'm slowly easing back into work. My next project is a book about what I've learned about writing effectively as a software developer.[0] Eventually, I'd like to try building a SaaS, but working on a book is much friendlier to an unpredictable work schedule at the moment.
[0] https://refactoringenglish.com/