After over a decade working with Magento, I decided to walk away - not because I couldn’t do it anymore, but because I couldn’t stand why I was doing it anymore.

Magento projects are often born broken. Started with cheap outsourced teams, filled with spaghetti code, load() calls inside foreach loops, and deadlines that make no sense. Then someone calls a “senior dev” - not to build, but to clean up, patch, ship, and magically make it work.

That someone was me. For years.

I charged $50/hour. I delivered. I worked through weekends, through vacations, inside systems I didn’t build but was expected to fix. Some clients paid late. Some didn’t pay at all. Most had huge expectations - enterprise marketplaces, massive product catalogs, 10+ vendors - but zero tolerance for planning, refactoring, or realistic timelines.

I got good at chaos. But I lost the joy of building.

This year, after back-to-back contracts, missed payments, high pressure, and no space to breathe - I broke. Not in code, but inside. I realized I was performing well in a system that was quietly killing me.

So I stopped. No new job. No big launch. Just a decision: I will not continue doing work that damages me for money I don’t respect.

I want to learn again. To explore without pressure. To rebuild trust in myself as a creator, not just a firefighter.

Right now, I’m turning toward what feels real: Bitcoin, Nostr, sovereignty, simple tools, backend work that respects both the user and the builder.

I don’t know exactly what comes next - but I know what’s over.

If you’ve been here too, or if you’re building something clean and meaningful, reach out. Let’s talk.

#exitMagento