I have seen a few people go through this after layoffs. One thing that helped them was keeping a small daily routine — building something small, learning one thing, or contributing somewhere. Structure makes a bigger difference than we expect.

I’ve started working as a substitute paraeducator for a local school district after being let go from tech. Working with students reveals work that ai will never help with. You can still make a difference.

I'm retiring early and fill my days by exploring 20th century film, music and literature, using LLMs to critically examine them throughout the journey. Basically a free hobby with near limitless source material.

This reads less like “AI poisoned the field” and more like the old map stopped working. The paycheck mattered, but so did the structure around it: deadlines, meetings, visible progress, a reason to keep moving. When that disappears, the loss often shows up as disgust with the whole ecosystem because there’s no replacement frame yet.