Comment by hn_throwaway_99

Wow, this is a really, really great answer. It was also a bit of a hard read for me personally, because I know it to be true, and because I kinda discovered I was a bit f'd in midlife - I had been a great (and I think recognized as great) contributor early on in my career, but I didn't want to make the transition to "decider" because I fundamentally don't enjoy managing teams of people. I've found it increasingly difficult to be good at the "contributor" role because I find it hard to stay motivated to keep change with the pace of tech. Not sure if it's really hard for me to learn new tech (though that's likely, as it's basically an inevitable consequence of aging), I just honestly don't care as much.

So for me, I'm actually getting off the career train to become a craftsman, and I plan to go to school to become a luthier (violin maker). May not be as cool as that guy who switched from a Microsoft principal engineer to duck farmer, but it's probably similar. I was lucky enough to have earned and saved enough early in my career to make this change.

But as you say, "In my lifetime, the value of contributors has diminished while the value of deciders has exploded", and that is totally true. I've accepted I'll never make as much money as I used to (obviously not even close being a luthier). But I think I'll be much happier.