Where have all the laid-off tech workers gone?
Laid-off tech worker here. (backend engineer, ruby&#x2F;rails&#x2F;javascript). 5 years of experience. I&#x27;m working on not ever going back into tech. I&#x27;ve changed careers a number of times in my 34 years of life, and am doing it again.<p>I&#x27;m only a mediocre software developer, have always had strong people&#x2F;business skills, informed by my pre-software experience of commercial construction, teaching&#x2F;training at a climbing gym, customer support, customer success, and inside sales at a B2B SaaS company.<p>Modestly obsessed with mobility networks. (like... roads, streets, bike paths, sidewalks, and the vehicles and people that occupy that space)<p>Working on going independent here in Denver, acting as a &#x27;broker&#x27; between businesses and their staff&#x2F;customers to convert single-occupancy-vehicle-users to scooters, to increase the functional number of parking spaces in a given parking lot by 10% or more.<p>Just started recently, partially inspired by spending a few weeks in Bali. (Being a laid-off tech worker has its upsides).<p>If I can get traction around this business idea, I&#x27;ll move sideways into guerilla action road network improvements, to make the junctions around the businesses I work with more habitable and safe for scooters, pedestrians, and cars.<p>Soooo I&#x27;m trying to make my job something like &quot;one who improves the functioning of road networks, sponsored by the direct beneficiaries of those improvements.&quot;<p>With a little success, I&#x27;ll be able to start hiring people to help. Maybe I&#x27;ll find a few other tech people to help. There&#x27;s plenty of room for software developers to make meaningful contributions to these projects, but only after spending a lot of time <i>not</i> behind a laptop.