It takes a big person to recognize their limitations and do the right thing in the face of them. It took me a long time to dial my participation back to a reasonable level so I can imagine how hard it would be given your passion to do the same. Thanks for the example of putting what is truly important first. If you’re ever back in Iowa City, look me up and we’ll have a beer and swap some stories. I’m sure yours will be more interesting.
Good luck in your “best project”, Jeff
I commend you sir! You are doing the right thing. I too have chosen a similar path. When I chose to have kids, I also chose them as my priority.
Thanks Jeff,
You always inspired me by breaking away from the safety of corporate life and setting up Stack.
You have inspired me even more by doing the human thing, something you will never regret, live long and grow strong.
Mike
Thank you,
Thank you. Thank you for stackoverflow and the stackexchange family. Keep up the good work and don’t stop blogging.
Good luck in the future, I’ll keep my eye’s out for the parenthorror.com blog.
Bravo Jeff, I am totally with you on this move. Thank you so very much for helping to bring about a fantastic resource that I rely on every day to get real things done.
Jeff,
Thank you for your post sir. One of the best I have ever read. Thank you the most for your COURAGE. That what it takes to do what you did and it inspired me to stay religious on my mission also of taking care of my two young daughters. Hats off to a class act…
Thank you for SO and SE in general! Enjoy being with your family and when the time comes good luck with your new endeavors.
Cheers
I made the same decision over a decade ago, to forgo an intensely competitive academic career to spend more time with my young family. My kids are now grown up and my job as a father is done, and I feel like I’ve enjoyed a level and kind of success that my more career-oriented peers can’t even imagine (if they could, they’d be pursuing it!)
There are all kinds of alternative opportunities once we open our eyes to them: I ended up founding and running a scientific consulting company that let me earn a good living and spend far more time with my kids than any conventional career.
Best of luck!
Jeff, Very admirable and wise thing to do. Many have missed this unfortunately and I think you’re spot on. Thanks for all you’ve done for Stack Exchange, especially SO. Please keep up the blogging if possible. Your blogs are entertaining and informative. I always look forward to them.
You will be missed Jeff and Thanks for your immense contribution on helping programmers and developers.
Javin
Jeff, shouldn’t you let the 10% of the meta users decide this?
Scott, For over half a decade now you have been one of my modern day heroes. For your earnestness, clarity of mission and outstanding results. This act deepens my admiration of you and your life’s work. Thank you.
Thank you so much for all your hard work, and for one of my favorite articles on parenthood entitled, well, ‘On Parenthood’, naturally.
I agree with you 100%. I have so many ideas for side projects, and even just things that I want to learn on my own…but in the end, they mostly get pushed aside because, well, the only way to get it all done is to ignore my family. It’s not worth it. It’s enough that I have to spend the whole day at a full-time job, the last thing I want to do is then go home and spend my whole evening staring at a computer again, instead of playing with my kids.
Anyone who says they are able to work full time, do multiple side projects and learn a dozen programming languages while still raising 2-3 children is either lying, getting absolutely no sleep, is completely ignoring their children, or they are Scott Hanselman (who admitted, if I remember correctly, that he doesn’t go to sleep until 2am most nights).
Anyway, good luck with whatever life will bring you. But, most of all, have fun with your family!
I’ve learned a bunch from you indirectly just by following Meta. Cheers and thanks for all the fish!
Thank you, Jeff for StackOverflow and best of luck.
Congrats and thanks Jeff. I have a 15 month-old myself and am part of a growing family, so I know what you mean.
I don’t normally comment because so many others have. However in case you have time to read all these:
My first thought was, “will Stackexchange survive without him?”. Then I thought, “because he’s done a good job of building it then of course it will”.
Enjoy your new phase of life!
Kudos to you Jeff for leading by example. I’ve been an avid reader for years, and I’m happy to see you continue to lead into uncharted territory. It sounds like it was a difficult decision, but one I’m sure your family will thank you for later. As well as the internet community. After all - if we have virtual community with each other but no family to speak of, what kind of community are we building?