So long, and thanks for all the bytes

Chet&#x27;s book on the early days of Android is super interesting. Lots of crazy OS building stories. He must have interviewed 50 people who worked on the first couple releases of Android. I had him share parts of that story on the podcast and result is one of my favorite episodes.<p>I always thought of Android as, of course it succeeded, it was a big google project. But the story is far more interesting. They were somewhat of a small group, part of an acquisition and didn&#x27;t actually merge with the prevailing google culture. Kind of kept to themselves and worked insane hours and were really into coffee.<p>Also, most of them had previous worked on similar projects. They had done the T-Mobile Sidekick and some of them came from WebTV, I think and BeOS.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;61431659" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;61431659</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;corecursive.com&#x2F;android-with-chet-haase&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;corecursive.com&#x2F;android-with-chet-haase&#x2F;</a>

Chet is a story-teller extraordinaire. imo, Devoxx 2019 remains his best presentation, so far: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube-nocookie.com&#x2F;embed&#x2F;IEQj8ZxHejo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube-nocookie.com&#x2F;embed&#x2F;IEQj8ZxHejo</a> (mirror: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ghostarchive.org&#x2F;varchive&#x2F;IEQj8ZxHejo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ghostarchive.org&#x2F;varchive&#x2F;IEQj8ZxHejo</a>) And his best gift to all of us active in AOSP and Android developer ecosystem is his book <i>Androids</i> (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chethaase.com&#x2F;androids" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chethaase.com&#x2F;androids</a>).<p>Thank you Chet. You have been sheer <i>quality</i> (q14) all year, every year.

Because of the downturn, I wonder how many people have given up on their careers at Tech? How many more will respond to the call of a different professional life that pays less, but that will be more fulfilling? Even as recent as yesterday I heard a past-colleague tell me &quot;maybe Tech isn&#x27;t for me, after all. I&#x27;ll try my hand at this other thing.&quot;

I always wanted to program, to create great things, got really good at it, but most of the time I was overtaken by folks playing politics that only used tech as a stepping stone to something they always wanted to do but only tech gave them financial resources to do that.

Chet is going to be missed a lot in our community. His talks with Romain Guy were inspirational to me: whenever I saw them it was clear that they could each hold the stage on their own, but that having the both of them got more out of both of them, both technically and in entertainment value.<p>I hope he does well in comedy, but I will miss his example: that you can bring even unusual talents and interests into work life and make something worthwhile of it

Never had the pleasure of meeting him in person, but as most of my career so far has been in mobile (and Android specifically) for the past 14 years, Chat has been one of those Android experts that have always &#x27;been there&#x27;.<p>I wish him all the best with the new endeavour, and thank him for all the great content and communication he has been part of over the years.<p>I will though miss the banter dynamic between Chet, Tor and Romain on ADB.<p><i>p.s</i> Highly recommend reading his book Androids on the history of the early days of its development

Some context for those that may be unaware; Chet has been a staple in the Android developer community for a very long time, having hosted a popular podcast and been a staple a conferences. His move into comedy will surprise no one, but he will be dearly missed.

I wish OP all the best, but there is one bit I can&#x27;t get out of my head<p>&gt; I feel very strongly that everyone should try, to the extent that it makes some kind of sense if you squint hard enough, to do what they want in work and life.<p>This is much much easier to say after an entire career in tech. However I wouldn&#x27;t give this advice lightly to people just starting over.<p>Here is a counterexample. I started my career following my passion and &quot;doing what I love&quot;, so I became an academic and joined a university.<p>After 7 years I was burnt out, broke and hated what used to be my passion. And I had to essentially start over my professional career in the private sector.<p>These days I don&#x27;t necessarily always love my day to day job, but I do enjoy more the lifestyle it afford me as a whole.<p>My takeaway is that earning money and growing your career capital early on has compounding effect over time, and more importantly, it increases your optionality in the future. Going into comedy writing is less scary when you don&#x27;t need to worry about sustaining your family.

The title is an allusion to &quot;So long, and Thanks for All the Fish&quot;, a book by Douglas Adams.<p>(For those HNers not steeped in the HHGTTG trilogy of six books)

I recently found out the creator of the show Suits was an investment banker previously: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Aaron_Korsh" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Aaron_Korsh</a><p>It&#x27;s great to see folks excel in multiple fields.

This chap sounds like a really cool person. I probably would have loved working with him, and wish him the best.<p>I&#x27;ll bet he gave great presentations. Having a good speaker, who can draw out laughs, makes any kind of presentation a joy.<p>I assume that he has banked enough to follow his muse, so he can remain in the SF area.<p>I happen to love tech, so, when I retired, I actually increased my coding fervor (I was a manager, before, so I left all that stuff behind).

I though Google paid decent salaries, but it turns out even after 15 years there you’re still concerned about making ends meet it seems

Honestly, and I don&#x27;t know if he&#x27;ll have an opportunity to read this, but as someone who&#x27;s both a computer geek and has dabbled in improv and comedy improv, he may find that coding and comedy writing are not entirely separate paths.<p>There&#x27;s definitely a STRUCTURE to successful comedy. Certain things have to be in certain conjunctions. Yes, there are definitely times when anticomedy will work, or deadpan comedy, but it&#x27;s not an utter free-for-all.<p>If as a person you (yes, whomever&#x27;s reading this comment) ever want to investigate what I mean, shell out for the Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improv Manual [1]. It&#x27;s fascinating reading on the structure of something you&#x27;ve simply enjoyed without thinking.<p>[1] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Special:BookSources?isbn=979-8373982573" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Special:BookSources?isbn=979...</a>

Reads like a good outline for a sitcom. Disillusioned tech exec enrolls in arts school with quirky green haired genZ : ^ )

Anyone wondering about taking up writing, acting, sketching etc and leaving your current paying, probably tech, job, because the passion was already tugging at you, remember this — this person is leaving after working for truckload-of-money years in FAANG and some more. You must remember that!<p>In fact that’s my take from his post. First earn lots of money and then “choose” what to do. Otherwise you won’t really be <i>choosing</i>.

Now I know why Android is written in Java - they are a bunch of comedians! Everything is a joke to them!<p>In all seriousness, career changes are very hard. I hope the best for him.

good for him and sounds like he really enjoyed tech. i burned out after 10 years and am going to art school now. makes me wonder if he wishes he did it earlier.

On one hand computer and information science degrees have experienced the highest growth among undergrad degrees [1], so lots of people are joining in, but on the other I&#x27;m curious to hear from the people who have left.<p>Is anyone who has exited the tech world still reading HN? What&#x27;s it like on the outside?<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.visualcapitalist.com&#x2F;cp&#x2F;charted-most-popular-u-s-undergraduate-degrees-2011-2021&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.visualcapitalist.com&#x2F;cp&#x2F;charted-most-popular-u-s...</a>

I remember Chet making delightful blog posts all the way back when he was at Sun. I wish him well on his new career, but hope that he doesn&#x27;t give up technical writing completely.

Nice! I’ve been rewinding myself. Not sure where I’ll go though but it’s fun. After 25 years I’m ready for it. Not going to write comedies but I’ll figure something out.

To quote musician Jon Wurster, roughly the same age as Chet, “I take whatever opportunities arise, no matter how weird or improbable they may be.”

I wish you and the rest of the android team hadn&#x27;t forced me to give you so many of my bytes, but you&#x27;re most welcome, good luck.

Shouldn’t the correct office annotation be @Obsoleted ?

Good luck Chet. Don’t give up the day job. Ooh…

we&#x27;re going to miss him and his generation dearly, they&#x27;re unique

Well, we need more Shazam like comedy to get us nerds through the day (Silicon Valley is good and the IT Crowd but Shazam is way more into it with the inside baseball), so I hope for selfish reasons he mixes the two passions!

good for you man.

It&#x27;s his contribution to increase Android quality.

Author worked on android as his first job back when people hired entry level. Today, the entry level people I know struggle massively to get a foot in the door.

The idea that another multi-millionaire tech worker would think that leaving their job is something people would be interested in is… strange. He’s letting the world know that in the second worst tech downturn in history, he’s going to retire and pursue comedy writing. Feels more appropriate for a Facebook post to this friends rather than a medium post.