> I may find that I have motivation for personal projects either, and live 6 months in a quiet depression in my underwear.
This. I've excercised my quitting fantasies a couple times before (I'm 38) and, without fail, after a couple months of working on a side project the excitement wears off and then it's just work - but without daily routine, coworkers and steady (and big!) pay. I find that, having the opportunity to make great money at job, I'm not passionate enough about anything to work on it for uncertain and delayed rewards. Classic golden handcuffs.
However - excercising these quitting fantasies have actually lead to a lot of personal growth, as I was able to test myself and to get to know myself better, not to mention branch out into different areas of life (my projects weren't only in software). And also somehow, after each flop, I've landed a job with similar or better pay than the one I've left. That was in Europe though, so I have no idea how likely is that in the US FAANGs.
> I suck it up and do my job. People would love this job. It's cushy and it pays very well. Just do it for 5 more years and then consider this stuff.
The tricky part here is that, in 5 years, it's likely that your pay will be amazing and you will risk even more with quitting.
If you're 25 and on the fast track to big bucks at a FAANG, the smart move seems to be just to ride it into early retirement. Most people probably cannot resist the tempation of quitting and trying out something else for a while - it's cool, we're not robots. But the default strategy should be early retirement IMO.
> However - excercising these quitting fantasies have actually lead to a lot of personal growth, as I was able to test myself and to get to know myself better, not to mention branch out into different areas of life (my projects weren't only in software). And also somehow, after each flop, I've landed a job with similar or better pay than the one I've left.
This is exactly my experience of quitting jobs to do something else. The grass was never as green as I imagined it to be before quitting, but the amount of new skills I learned and experiences I had were 10x what I would have gained from staying in the same job.
This. I've excercised my quitting fantasies a couple times before (I'm 38) and, without fail, after a couple months of working on a side project the excitement wears off and then it's just work - but without daily routine, coworkers and steady (and big!) pay. I find that, having the opportunity to make great money at job, I'm not passionate enough about anything to work on it for uncertain and delayed rewards. Classic golden handcuffs.
However - excercising these quitting fantasies have actually lead to a lot of personal growth, as I was able to test myself and to get to know myself better, not to mention branch out into different areas of life (my projects weren't only in software). And also somehow, after each flop, I've landed a job with similar or better pay than the one I've left. That was in Europe though, so I have no idea how likely is that in the US FAANGs.
> I suck it up and do my job. People would love this job. It's cushy and it pays very well. Just do it for 5 more years and then consider this stuff.
The tricky part here is that, in 5 years, it's likely that your pay will be amazing and you will risk even more with quitting.
If you're 25 and on the fast track to big bucks at a FAANG, the smart move seems to be just to ride it into early retirement. Most people probably cannot resist the tempation of quitting and trying out something else for a while - it's cool, we're not robots. But the default strategy should be early retirement IMO.