August 15, 2026 · Lititz, PA

Starting Over at 44

Blog

Date Written: 2026-08-15 11:00am
Location: Lititz, PA

This is a personal blog / journal. These views are ripples of consciousness from a moment in time in my life and given only a moment of thought. If I have written something that offends you, the problem is almost certainly with you.

My previous employer offered a severance package that was worth considering and after I spent a week considering it; I decided to take it.

This put me in the position of having a small pile of cash and no job at the age of 44 and no plan of what to do next.

That was one month ago.

I have since tried to find a new job (that felt like the correct path to take), but dozens of LinkedIn applications later and one failed interview have left me feeling a bit insecure about how easy it is going to be to find this elusive new job.

I have been writing code for 30 years, I started when I was 14 with a simple text only interface of white text on a blue background in a text editor / programing tool called MS-DOS QBASIC. This felt like Magic. I wrote a video game and out of necessity and a lack of internet, I was forced to read-the-fing-manual and trial-and-error my way into figuring out how to make a game. When you are 14 and alone in the basement and there is nothing else to do in a cold Iowa Winter, you make video games and so that is what I did.

Flash forward 30 years and after writing software in numerous fields from agriculture, actuarial science, biotech, and ecommerce, I find myself back to being alone, in my basement, unemployed. Only this time it is Summer, I am living in Pennsylvania, there are bills to pay, and QBASIC has been replaced with a Magic Oracle that builds whatever you tell it. Depending on your setting and what Magic Oracle you are using, the interface has reverted to something like a plain white text on a black background to show just how far we have come in 30 years.

I am not sure what role I play in this world of magic oracles. I had a good run for the last 30 years because I could listen to people talk and I could write some spells and the computer would do the thing being talked about. But now the magic oracle can do the listening and the writing of the spells, so outside of convincing people only I am qualified to talk to the Oracle, I am basically unemployable. I don’t think IT needs a priest-class, it isn’t in our meritocratic mindset. Even a poor kid sleeping in a cold midwest basement with 2nd generation Tandy could join our ranks, as long as they sat down and started typing. Lawyers and doctors created some strong moats and towers, their whole thing is being priestly and untouchable, so they probably bought themselves a few more years of protection from the Magic Oracle before the Siege of MD/JD Constantinople, but for developers we need to figure out what value we have left to offer today.

Entrepreneurship

This can’t be all doom and sadness and to be honest, I am probably more optimistic than this seems so far. I am hopeful that AI will open new doors and change our field of work for the better. From the time I was 14, my life has been mostly writing software that people want, and that doesn’t change now that software is easier than ever to write.

So after thinking about it and realizing that getting another traditional C-Corp Job is quite difficult at this moment in time, I have decided to start my own business.

I have no idea what the next few years are going to be like in this rapidly changing AI landscape, but I know that I can help and I can ship code. I could tell you what my business does, but I am not sure it will be true in a few days. The era of rapid iteration and pivoting is upon us, so my days will be spent on small experiments and trying new things to discover what I can make money delivering.

I am starting with consulting and delivering small SaaS products to my existing professional network and I will see where that branches off. I am also working on writing games and building a product I hope to ship soon.

Candid(e) Conclusion

I wanted to end this post optimistically, but I don’t think naive optimism is appropriate at my age.

Instead, I will spend each day writing a little bit of code and hope I find a path to earn enough to take care of my family and live well. This is all I really desire anymore.

Cela est bien dit, répondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin.