Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
Ex-Googler here. I was a SWE L4 and left after four years in frustration with the promotion process (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;why-i-quit-google&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;why-i-quit-google&#x2F;</a>).<p>Since then, I:<p>* Moved out of my $3.3k&#x2F;mo Manhattan apartment and bought a home for $200k in Western Massachusetts. Paid in cash so I no longer have to pay rent&#x2F;mortgage. I feel like my time is much less &quot;metered&quot; now because my annual living expenses are so low, I can pursue things for fun without worrying about how much it&#x27;s costing me in terms of time.<p>* Attempted to build a startup on top of a distributed storage cryptocurrency (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.spaceduck.io&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.spaceduck.io&#x2F;</a>). Didn&#x27;t work because the underlying platform wasn&#x27;t mature enough yet, so it was more expensive and less reliable than centralized solutions.<p>* Attempted to build a business with a ML-powered recipe ingredient parsing service. Found out recipe apps aren&#x27;t really willing to pay for it. (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;shipping-too-late&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;shipping-too-late&#x2F;</a>)<p>* Currently working on toy projects to sharpen my web development skills because I&#x27;ve found that part of my skillset to be a bottleneck with my previous projects.