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://mtlynch.io/why-i-quit-google/" rel="nofollow">https://mtlynch.io/why-i-quit-google/</a>).<p>Since then, I:<p>* Moved out of my $3.3k/mo Manhattan apartment and bought a home for $200k in Western Massachusetts. Paid in cash so I no longer have to pay rent/mortgage. I feel like my time is much less "metered" now because my annual living expenses are so low, I can pursue things for fun without worrying about how much it's costing me in terms of time.<p>* Attempted to build a startup on top of a distributed storage cryptocurrency (<a href="https://blog.spaceduck.io/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.spaceduck.io/</a>). Didn't work because the underlying platform wasn'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't really willing to pay for it. (<a href="https://mtlynch.io/shipping-too-late/" rel="nofollow">https://mtlynch.io/shipping-too-late/</a>)<p>* Currently working on toy projects to sharpen my web development skills because I've found that part of my skillset to be a bottleneck with my previous projects.