
Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for? - JerryMouse
I&#x27;ve recently been diagnosed with an illness that has left me little to no concentration and a very low level of comprehension,as such I will most likely have to leave my job as a software engineer as it&#x27;s becoming overwhelming. So my question is, if you have had to leave  your IT job, what was&#x2F;is your new job.
======
walterstucco
When I stopped in 2009, I went tourign Europe with bands for four years, doing
mainly roadie/driver/merch guy stuff.

It's been a relieving experience, I went back to thinking only about today,
what we had to do for today's show and nothing more, eventually planning
tomorrow's trip, but without much stress.

No planning, no meetings, no standups, no due dates, just load/unload the van,
mount the stage, check check check one-two-one-two, waiting for people to show
up at the merch stand, with a glass always filled with something.

I was in charge of checking that the venues were respecting our rider, so my
job ended up being counting beers and having fun with friends while having
party every night.

It has also been cheaper than living in my city, everything was already paid:
meals, sleeping accommodations, booze, even drugs most of the times.

Then the band I was working the most stopped for a couple of years to write
the new album and I went back into programming, learnt Elixir/Erlang, and now
I am consulting for different kind of companies (including banks, video games
and insurance companies) to eradicate Java from this planet :)

p.s.: during this awesome times I also had the pleasure to work at an EOTM
concert with Nick, their merch guy who was brutally killed in Paris at the
Bataclan.

He truly was a great guy, may he rest in peace.

p.p.s.: I think I should add that I left because I had been working home for
too long, I was stressed, almost burnt out, plus I was having big problems
getting paid on time (if paid at all).

It's been one of the economically lowest moments of my life, I barely had
enough money to buy cigarettes, but absolutely one of my greatest and funniest
achievements.

It gave me the boost to rethink my life in terms of working better and do
less, not more.

I was absolutely no kid anymore (I was 30 already) and still doing it from
time to time, when i need to take the steam out.

------
philbarr
> little to no concentration and a very low level of comprehension

This might sound like a flippant response but it's not: could you move into
management? You don't need to know the finer details, but you'd have the
experience required to empathise with the developers in your team.

~~~
yeukhon
I think this may backfire even more. Sure there are stories about how one can
get by as a manager without knowing much or doing much, but that's rare. As a
manager you have to answer to your boss and make sure team delivery is met.
You will need to do budget and stay current with what's happening at work, so
that you don't become clueless in meetings. This can be stressful at work
since politics is inevitable.

~~~
UK-AL
Yes, but all these things are "bigger picture" stuff.

It's not trying to comprehend 1000 little things at the same time using deep
concentration, as a software developer does.

~~~
yeukhon
Not really. If you aren't able to concentrate for a long time, how can you
join a meeting and catch the important stuff? If your mind is wandering and
you appear to ask questions which have been answered you are going to sound
like you didn't pay attention. I have seen people struggle to keep up because
they have so many meetings so many emails and so many questions to take care.
Sure you donmt code anymore, but you have a lot of little things to take care
of. I work in infrastructure/operation so maybe that's different from a
manager working on iOS product. Point is you will get frustrated and that's
bad. It lowers your confidence, maybe.

------
stankot
Sorry to hear that.

Personally, if I ever get to leave IT before retirement, I plan to equip a
workshop and start making electric guitars. It connects various craftsmanship
skills with some engineering and art. And the best part is, end product is a
instrument.

Unfortunately, this is not the best career choice where I live in (Eastern
Europe). Although if you are good, you could make a living out of it. At least
I would have better website then the competition :) Backup plan is to build
modern/minimalistic furniture where there is no guitar orders.

Another direction would be to create a hub for amateur craftsmen. Well
equipped workshop where you can rent a space to make things on your own, or
take a course.

As you can see, I would pursue something related to making things as that's
something I really love, and I'm doing as a hobby (IT takes a lot of time
though). So, my advice would be to find something you love and see if you can
make a living out of it.

Good luck!

~~~
mpfundstein
with your it skills you can easily go global. make a great website with a
customization widget or twitch the making of a guitar. lots of possibilities
to distinguish yourself

~~~
stankot
It is true, and I will try it for sure at some point. Thing is that I
tremendously enjoy software development as well, so this idea is on hold for
now. Going global asks for solving more problems like logistics, but it is
certainly worth the effort.

------
rectang
Here is an inspiring story of a Hacker News contributor who was once in a
similar position (though he has since recovered):

[http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/we-made-it-
our...](http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/we-made-it-ourselves-
scream-sorbet/?_r=0)

    
    
        “What product could I, in my mentally addled state,
        come up with making?” he wondered. That’s when he
        remembered his longtime love of ice cream.

~~~
shk88
Inspiring, but it looks like the business failed sometime around 2013 for
violating health code / zoning laws. Disappointing, as someone who likes the
idea of leaving tech to run an ice cream shop.

------
spazziam
I was a power engineer for utilities. I now work on ERP systems for fortune
500 companies. SQL from one bad implementation to another.

------
tylerlarson
Become an artist. Don't make art based on your expression of your feelings or
whatever. Take it on like you would a startup. Create things you think will
sell and based on what works iterate quickly. Make lots of work, sell it at
cost and increase your price as you refine your process.

You can involve computers in the process of creating work. Things like
conceptual art doesn't even have to involve any artistic skill necessarily,
but there are many other areas that do if you want to try it out. Paintings
from unknown artist can sell for $5K and if you have the energy and space to
make sculptures, they can sell for much more.

Always keep in mind who the buyers are, it isn't always directly to customers
(galleries, governments, large corporations). Only make work that sells. In
the process your pitch will need to be refined. It can't be simply that you
want to make money, it has to speak the the audience.

There are many different customers out there looking for different things.
Keep in mind there are very few people who devote themselves to this and few
of these people have any sense of business, branding, marketing, or even
creativity as deep as what is available in technology today. Sure many people
can draw or whatever but this isn't want makes a successful artist.

Success comes from all of the same stuff that every other industry focuses on.

R.Mutt QED

~~~
tedmiston
> Success comes from all of the same stuff that every other industry focuses
> on.

Sure, but a major difference is that art is highly subjective and typically
bought with arbitrary disposable income as opposed to a value-based purchasing
decision. The kind of art that large corporations buy isn't what any artist
actually wants to make.

~~~
_dingus
>The kind of art that large corporations buy isn't what any artist actually
wants to make.

I think that's exactly what they are suggesting. Make art that will sell, not
art that artists want to make. Methodically approach art to appeal to a
specific niche (be it corporate clients, government orgs all the way down to
stay at home moms and anime fans). You could argue that at that point it isn't
really "art", but that's kind of the idea. Take art out of it and sell a
product to appeal to a certain market.

------
snarfy
Honestly, depending on your age you should think about applying for permanent
disability (ssdi).

~~~
emodendroket
That sounds a little more realistic than a jump to management or skilled
trades for someone with the difficulties the OP describes.

~~~
rectang
It's a good idea no matter what other activities the OP decides to pursue.
Having base income could open up many options.

There are lots of meaningful and rewarding ways to participate in society,
including volunteering for charitable organizations, that do not require the
highest levels of skill and competitiveness.

------
erikb
Well, there is another group of jobs that is not yet outsourced to machines
and doesn't use concentration and comprehension as much: detailed, complex
manual work that requires years of training. For instance high quality wood
work, soldering, fine grained painting.

~~~
Arizhel
Soldering? Soldering for electronics is almost all automated now, and with
most electronics being surface-mount it's mostly done by stenciled solder
paste and reflow. The exception is for the few remaining items that can't be
done that way, such as when wires need to be soldered to PCBs (though here for
high-volume stuff they usually use connectors because the wires can be
assembled with connectors elsewhere, and then the wire harnesses simply
plugged in during final assembly).

Are you talking about some other kind of soldering, such as for stained glass
or plumbing? Stained glass with real lead and real glass is pretty rare these
days, much more rare than high-quality woodwork, and mainly for hobbyists.
Plumbing soldering is done with a blowtorch and isn't all that difficult, but
worse, copper in plumbing is being replaced by plastic which doesn't use
soldering, but rather press-fit connectors. So don't count on that as a long-
lived profession either (the soldering part I mean; plumbing itself will be
around as long as humans have biological bodies and need to use water for
cooking, hand-washing, toilets, and bathing, it'll just be easier as new
technologies replace legacy ones).

~~~
erikb
That is mass production you are talking about. But there are a lot of people
who build their own special purpose devices, and all the alpha/beta testing
happens with manually soldered hardware, since prepping a machine for just 10
boards is way too expensive. For that reason even in production many of these
devices are at least partly manually assembled to save money. We are talking
1000+ devices to make machine production profitable. Many devices don't have
that many customers, at least until the next set of hardware is there.

~~~
Arizhel
>But there are a lot of people who build their own special purpose devices,

Those are called "hobbyists".

>and all the alpha/beta testing happens with manually soldered hardware, since
prepping a machine for just 10 boards is way too expensive

This is absolutely wrong. You can't manually place BGAs with any accuracy. I
work in an R&D environment; our electronics are custom-built in-house at very
low volumes, and they do use machines even for a one-off. Some parts can be
fixed manually if they didn't get reflowed right, but BGAs cannot.

Even if you're doing boards with nothing smaller than SOICs, even there it's
simpler and easier to just get a Kapton stencil and use solder paste, though
you can of course pick-and-place with tweezers.

~~~
erikb
I know a few single digit million dollar companies who do that. I wouldn't
call it a hobby if you have 50 employees.

------
yardie
I "left" IT to travel for a year. When I resettled in another country I took
different jobs (waiter, bartender, air traffic controller trainee). Software
development was always my passion so I got involved with a lot of social
causes by building and hosting websites and forums for them. Which eventually
led me back to working in IT.

I'm not sure what your symptoms are but if this is a degenerative brain
disease you may wish to use that time to visit family, friends, and experience
new things.

------
technologia
I hate to say it, but sometimes corporate IT support in mid-size companies
might be the way to go if you are dead set on staying in your lane. Depending
on the company, it could be as simple as going through a binder for answers,
logging in requests into a ticketing system, rinse & repeat.

I am sorry to hear that you are suffering such an illness, it definitely sucks
to lose physical abilities and it takes great personal strength to get through
it. I wish you all the best to still keep your intended career path, but if
not I wish you all the same in finding an ideal worksite for yourself.

~~~
shubb
There are other roles like that in large organisations. Release management,
standards compliance in regulated industries, maybe scrum master jobs.

~~~
technologia
Sure, I just went with the first thing that came to mind

------
hl5
Depending on your location and political views, a marijuana trimming job could
work out.

------
hanxue
Quit my job as a system architect / software engineer and pursuing martial
arts and spiritual cultivation full time in China.

I don't plan to give up IT for good. Having been in the industry for 10 years,
I know I must follow my heart to be happy and be a well-adjusted person.

------
yeukhon
I would take a break and perhaps work in animal cares or something that would
give you a break from human politics. Call it therpay if you want. For me I
might eventually get a master and teach in university but in your condition
this is probably a bad idea. The best thing right now is use up your vacation
days and sick days and quit if you can support for a while before look for a
new job.

Banking teller job is also a good option that makes decent money without
having to work extremely hard all day long. Museum Tour guide is also a good
one but I imagine the pay will be quite low.

------
balabaster
My side project is an organic farm school.

I raise pigs, cows, goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits and grow organic produce.
It doesn't require much concentration. You might think this is a huge reach
from I.T. but it still requires a lot of problem solving skills and
discipline. It doesn't require the same kind of concentration, but you find
out very quickly that the concentration it does take is engaging. It holds
your attention because like the ocean, if you turn your back on it, it'll get
you.

A lot of people's response to this has been "wow, that's my dream, but I could
never do that because X, Y or Z"

3 years ago, I lived in the city, no land, no first hand experience rearing
animals, could barely keep a tomato plant alive long enough to get tomatoes
off it. I grew up in the country, I had some friends whose parents were
farmers, my Dad had horses and we had 2 cats - that was the extent of my
experience.

Anyone saying "Oh that's my dream but I could never do that because I have no
land, I have no experience, I don't know where I would start." Neither did I.
I found a place I could rent that had enough land to make a start that was
within my means. Enough to learn how to grow fruit and vegetables and raise
chickens, then by the time I ran out of room, I had a pretty good idea that I
could do this and rented a place with more land. The side bonus is that the
kids now have 100 acres to run around on and be kids without having to
micromanage them like I did in the city, they can find themselves and grow
like we used to as kids, learning their own limits and building confidence
with no parents helicoptering over them making sure they don't hurt themselves
- and they love it.

I also don't have to put up with the marketing bullshit that we're bombarded
with about how awesome our manufactured food is, which it may be, but probably
not. I know where my food comes from, from my land to my plate. I know what
they've been fed, I'm happy with how they've been treated. I can see they're
happy before they go to the freezer. I know my produce isn't treated with
harmful pesticides and herbicides.

It's not for the feint of heart though, I knew it was going to be a lot of
work going in, but I had no comprehension of the fact that it's not like a job
you can put down when you're not feeling up to it. There's no "I just don't
have the motivation to get out of bed today" or calling in on your depression
because you just can't face the world. It's there, day in, day out, come rain,
come shine, come mosquitoes, come drought, come blizzard, come flood. It's
there and needs tending to. There's no days off or vacation without arranging
someone to cover for you.

Animals have their own behaviour and their own way of doing things. They have
their own motives and desires. They will show you very quickly that you cannot
control the world around you and that all you can do is learn to harness and
exploit their behaviour against them to keep things working. If you're not
already, you will quickly learn to be adaptable, you will quickly learn to
improvise with the things you have to hand right now, you will quickly learn
to do whatever it takes or you don't have food on the table.

There are many days when I wonder what the fuck I've done and want to go
running back to the safety and convenience of the city where I can be lazy
without any repercussions. But when the sun comes out, the animals are
behaving and happy and you've got a full harvest in front of you, you smile to
yourself and you know why you did it. That's a level of satisfaction you just
don't get anywhere else.

When I finally decide that programming is too much for me - which seems like a
long way off yet, this side project will become my main gig. I have other
ideas that will become side projects to complement this, but for the moment
this is taking a fair portion of my free time and energy.

~~~
PaulRobinson
I have considered farming in the past, quite seriously. I think bringing an
engineering/scientist mindset to it might be a distraction, but it might also
actually help me stay interested in what looks like otherwise very tough work.

Farmers have moderately high suicide rates: isolation, hard work, long hours,
and the inability to just stop, as you state.

I read your account - and have read many others like it - and immediately
start to think of farming more like Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea":
hard work, rewarding, but there's little choice in getting on with the work.

Maybe one day. Maybe.

~~~
balabaster
Bringing an engineering/scientist mindset isn't a distraction - it's often a
godsend. Another tool in your belt. It gives you an ability to research, to
understand, to figure things out. It puts you streets ahead of a lot of
farmers.

You don't need to be isolated nor put in long hours. But it's more work than I
should perhaps have described as "a side project." If I made it my full time
job and quit programming for a living, I'd probably be able to say it was only
a part time job relatively quickly.

The hard work and inability to just stop are inescapable. You need to be aware
of that going in. As the quote about surfing big waves from Point Break goes
"You can't just call time-out and stroll on into the beach if you don't like
the way things are going" much as I sometimes wish I could.

The peace of mind and living in harmony with your surroundings is good for
your soul though. It definitely makes you more aware of living in the moment
and having backup plans.

------
thefhjhdfc
I did not. There is not much work outside IT. Also alimony...

Solution for me was to change a lifestyle and sell myself much better. I work
remotely a few hours a week.

~~~
sirsuki
>change a lifestyle and sell myself much better.

What is this magic?! Please enlighten. I, like many IT folks, loathe sales. As
such I can not sell myself out of a paper bag. Do you have any resources to
help in this matter?

~~~
sageabilly
Check out The Interview Guys- that site was invaluable for me earlier this
year when I pulled myself together and left my horrid horrid horrid OldJob. I
had a lot of good resources for putting together a great resume but up until I
found that site I hadn't found anywhere that laid out exactly what to do in an
interview.

------
angelofthe0dd
Technical writing/Technical Communication. Throughout my IT career, I've
always been "the guy who documents everything". It's actually my favorite part
of my job because I feel like I'm adding a layer of structure and peer
reference to what is otherwise chaos and tribal knowledge.

~~~
srednalfden
Does it pay well? Availability of jobs? :)

------
Jemmeh
My dad left and does Heating and Air work now-- but that still requires being
analytical with the electrical work. He owns his own business.

Others in my family do concrete, which is physically hard but they also seem
to make good money. Again they own it themselves.

Hard to get jobs that compare to IT money though without being management,
sinking time into school, or starting your own business.You'll probably have
to try a few things out to figure out what you can actually do. I know that
might be frustrating, but hang in there. You'll find something that works at
some point.

If you have the ability to do so, maybe you could make some apps at home? You
could pace yourself. You might have to change the way you work, using a lot of
written organization, but it depends on how your mind works.

------
dangle
I left my job to help people quit their jobs. Seriously. Even though I was
writing code and managing teams for big clients (Google, Starbucks, P&G) I
found people's individual careers more exciting.

Really sorry to hear about your illness and struggles. That sounds pretty
tough. Would you say that IT feels like "your calling?"

I've had friends and clients leave tech for more fulfilling, but lower wage
work in cooking, farming, design, music, art, after-school work, and non-
profit work.

There are a lot of good ideas on this thread, but it would be easier to speak
to your situation if I had some more details.

Email me if you're up for sharing more, I'd be happy to help if I can:

darren@youshouldquityourjob.com

------
detnext
Not so many good responses to an evergreen question. I left my best IT job
ever to be FT caregiver for my folks, years longer than I'd intended. If you a
diag of early stage dementia,cardiac, diabetic etc, fix those 1st. Nothing
works if your brain doesn't. Your choice is IT, in or out. You offer the same
skills in lesser potions in law, real estate, or where contracts are written.
If you are truly going out, know that's what will happen. No insurance, no
bennies. If you have a progressive chronic disease, take what stock you can
today. Pre-existing conditions are back. If you have migration route, take it.

------
BorisMelnik
I left my original job (not in IT)so that I could pursue my passion in this
field. I've seen many people leave IT for more pure careers such as teaching,
food service or farming.

the answer lies inside of you, not in HN. what are your passions and interests
other than IT? if its say "farming" you may not be able to go start a farm,
but maybe you can go work for Home Depot in the garden center for 6 months,
and start "farming on the side" (ppl do this) from there.

------
grindal
If I can, to the ranch with the family, breeding plants and apiculture.

If I can't... depend in function of my physical condition. Repairing cars,
welding, industrial agriculture, photography lab or making photos... Or simply
one mill and make pieces.

If you can choose, be yourself, live, one Shabbatical year can be a good
election.

I'm sorry Jerry I hope it is nothing. My best wishes.

------
wyclif
I left a sysadmin role to become a land surveyor and GPS/GIS technician. Loved
the job but then in 2008 the commercial real estate market tanked, and took
surveying down with it. So I went back into "IT", but instead of going back to
sysadmin I started working in web dev.

------
germs12
What illness does this?

~~~
awjr
Tragically things like Dementia and Alzheimers can do this. Also numerous
mental conditions e.g. depression, stress, etc.

I knew one guy that got a degree in Comp Sci and in his first job began
getting severe debilitating headaches. He was diagnosed with a visual problem
and was told to stop using screens in his day to day job. He quit a promising
career as a software engineer and went and joined his dad's gardening
business.

------
SAI_Peregrinus
Left IT to go back to school and get my degree in Computer Engineering. Not a
good choice for someone with little to no concentration / comprehension. Take
all the stuff you do in (embedded/systems) software, then add in hardware
design.

------
MrLeftHand
Do you really need to leave IT just because of these symptoms? There are so
many areas to work in.

Anyway, what illness are you talking about here? Boredom? Got stuck in a place
where the project sucked the life and general interest out of you? OCD?
Depression? Anxiety?

UPDATE: Got good answers about what can cause these symptoms.

If you want to leave IT then try to find jobs that are still challenging your
creativity, but don't need huge amount of concentration in the same time. Like
becoming a carpenter, professional gardener, etc...

These still make you use your creative side, but rely on more physical work
then intellectual.

~~~
nf05papsjfVbc
Being a carpenter might involve handling tools that are potentially dangerous
if handled without one's full attention. So, may I suggest that one avoid such
endeavours unless one is able to fully focus on the job at hand.

~~~
denim_chicken
Being a carpenter also sucks

~~~
MrLeftHand
Ever tried it? You sound someone who has a great deal of experience in the
field.

My father was one and I loved the smell of wood in the workshop.

I would have loved to be a carpenter. It's one of those professions that might
never go away. Even having mass production stuff, there are still people who
prefer the human touch and the originality in the arts and crafts.

~~~
ams6110
There are different kinds of carpenters.

There are construction carpenters (framers) that work outside in the sun,
rain, cold hammering dimensional lumber together to construct the skeleton of
a building. It's physically demanding and chance of injury is significant.

There are finish carpenters who do the detail trim work like window and door
frames, baseboard, wainscotting, etc. You work indoors but still on-site.

There are cabinet makers and furniture builders. You probably work in a fixed
location/shop.

Probably a bunch of others that I haven't thought of.

------
kowdermeister
I would open a bar on beach or become a surf instructor. Or write novels or
something. Becoming an artist is also a good idea.

~~~
emodendroket
How is someone with "little to no concentration and a very low level of
comprehension" supposed to write a novel?

~~~
kowdermeister
> So my question is, if you have had to leave your IT job, what was/is your
> new job.

I think I answered. That's what I would do, maybe it sparked a new idea in
him, maybe it didn't. Maybe he can do something that can be documented and be
turned into a novel by someone else. He's in a stage when he can still perform
and plan ahead.

------
sheepdestroyer
Some years ago, I left my job and country to be a private tour guide in Kyoto.
Did it three years, great times.

------
grecy
Travel Writer / Photographer.

Currently driving around Africa for 2 years.

Leaving my desk was the best decision I have ever made.

~~~
drdoooom
how do support yourself? money from previous job or do you have some passive
income?

~~~
grecy
Bit of both, but primarily savings from previous jobs.

details on how I did that here: [http://theroadchoseme.com/work-less-to-live-
your-dreams](http://theroadchoseme.com/work-less-to-live-your-dreams)

------
Keyframe
I left for storytelling and film/tv. If anything, it's more taxing, so there's
that.

~~~
fsiefken
What factors make storytelling and film more taxing, deliver scripts on time,
shoot the scene, video processing? I'd think that fixing bugs on a tight
schedule and delivering features would be more taxing? It depends on setting
as well I presume.

~~~
Keyframe
Writing scripts itself is the most relaxing part of the job, it takes some
concentration though.

Film and TV production is on a whole other level. Breaking down scripts for
production schedule and framing everything within a budget and then talking to
a lot of people where their job is to take your money and yours is to keep it.
Then keeping track that everything is in order for production to take place
and solving lots of last-minute crises, everything involving a lot of people.
If it's a live TV type of situation or there's an oversight from larger
production, stress gets amped up a lot. It's a busy hive, somewhat like an
organised chaos where most of the work is handling people and being handled by
people. That's production. Pre-production alone is, more or less, stress free
process. That might be a direction to explore if you're art or organization
oriented.

------
wyuenho
Not to derail this thread, but say you are not sick. What do people leave IT
for?

------
fyskij
Writing and directing movies

------
chukye
farmer

------
bbcbasic
If I had such an illness then what I would do would depend on my financial
situation.

E.g. can partner support you for a bit? Do you have children? Do you have
total and permanent disability insurance or temporary sickness insurance.
Assets? Own an expensive home and can downsize or move to cheaper city to
access equity etc. Etc.

Based on this and a target income and number of work hours I'd look for jobs
that don't require much mental agility.

It depends what is meant by no concentration but most jobs require some.
However something with more carpe diem like waitor, cleaner, gardening etc
where you d your days work and that's it. A small fuck up usually doesn't mess
your backlog etc. In these jobs.

If financially able consider doing no work but plan daily activities to keep
from stagnating. E.g. long walk and salsa class every day or whatever. Or
learn Haskell for an hour a day but turn off if concentration becomes an
issue.

------
1S9C8G4
musician

------
myrobostation
Why are you looking for a new position now? This is for employed candidates
considering a job change.

------
martamoreno
Unless you are close to retirement, the new job you should be seeking is "How
do I heal myself". Unless of course you want to go through the rest of your
life with your condition...

If school medicine won't help you, you should start looking for some alternate
approaches, there are enough out there.

~~~
bognition
Wow never thought the top comment on hn would be advocating for non evidence
based medicine.

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TallGuyShort
Why is non-school-medicine inherently non-evidence based? Yeah there's a ton
of garbage out there, but I think it's been abundantly shown that incentives
are screwed up enough that many mainstream healthcare providers will often
ignore potential treatments or even conditions for which there is evidence
(but for which they don't have a pill to sell you) or leading to it not
getting studied enough to be considered evidence-based.

Classic example is fibromyalgia: family member of mine believed they had it
and now has a formal diagnosis, but was told by multiple doctors that it
wasn't a real thing and probably all in her head. Went to a chiropractor who
dabbled in all sorts of stuff who ended up helping her manage it really well
with some diet and lifestyle changes. Now I don't know how well those
recommendations were backed up by evidence, but I was blown away at how a few
months later there was a widely-advertized FDA-approved drug to treat a
condition that according to at least 5 or 6 doctors in our town didn't exist
(and they all suddenly recognized it and had fliers for it in their offices).
It's amazing how suddenly the "evidence" came up the minute it had a
marketable drug.

