Ask HN: What should I do now as a middle aged developer feeling like a loser?
There is so much to unpack here I wouldn&#x27;t even know where to start. First off, you think you&#x27;re having a mental health crisis so you&#x27;re going to HN for advice? Now on to you&#x27;re specific scenarios....<p>A. &quot;Aggressively move into management&quot; Why do you even think this is an option? Do you really think the only reason you haven&#x27;t gone into management is because you haven&#x27;t decided to claim the seat that they&#x27;ve got just sitting there waiting for you? Management is a hierarchy so by definition there are fewer and fewer seats the higher you go up. If you want one you&#x27;re going to have to beat someone else out for it. &quot;The cons might be too much politics. People skills don&#x27;t expire though&quot; So you already think the only problem with management is &quot;politics&quot;? You&#x27;re already starting out with a contemptuous attitude towards management that comes out in later statements.<p>B. Again, so you&#x27;re so good at what you do that you can just decide to become a thought leader. It seems like you&#x27;re assuming you&#x27;re brilliant and the only ting that has held you back from being a thought leader is that you haven&#x27;t applied yourself to the task but once you do success is certain. This doesn&#x27;t jibe with your statement that you think you&#x27;re a failure.<p>C. &quot;I could easily make 2x - 3x my salary [at a FAANG]&quot; You&#x27;re going to get a job at a FAANG that easily? and get a 2x-3x salary bump for doing it. If it was that easy why the hell aren&#x27;t you doing that now? LeetCode is what&#x27;s holding you back? You don&#x27;t want to take time away from your family, perfectly reasonable choice, but then you can&#x27;t easily get a new job at a FAANG.<p>D. Again, you can just walk in anywhere AND get a salary bump? Again why aren&#x27;t you doing that already. It&#x27;s kind of the no brainer solution which wouldn&#x27;t preclude any of the other options and you&#x27;re not even leaning towards this one.<p>E. This is just pure fantasy.<p>If your day job is soul-sucking then at the very least go with option D, take your 1.2x to 1.6x salary bump and reassess.