Moving away from technology and becoming self-sufficient. A cottage with a stream on the edge of a forest, a large garden, some chickens and other animals, and no smart devices, managers, tickets, KPAs, performance reviews, legendary devs shitting out an endless stream of bugs, etc.

Peace and quiet.
And freedom at last.
That’s success.

That’s the ultimate success: escape.

When the next guy can't find anything to complain about

Testing on prod without getting the whole world to collapse

Once in corporate stuffy devland a major monopoly-in-their-field client was raging at our tiny company and trying to scrutinize everything we did for whatever reason

The client's head huncho, some department head below the execs or something, insisted he have a code review meeting with the lead developer, which was me, and scrutinize my code in a 2 hour impromptu meeting one random Tuesday. Up until this point I was not allowed to even be introduced to the client so I'm a little ticked my company is throwing me under the bus like this.

So I get into this call, share my screen, guy is raging and asking questions left and right about every line I had written, firing, fuming, shouting... But it's clear he doesn't know how code works. So then I start teaching him how variable assignments work and function calls... He got so bored he left the meeting in 30 minutes and it was never spoken of again lmao

to become what he has always despised...

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Finishing a project

Once in a meeting, a customer tell me he can do the entire system for 400 BRL using a python script, in one month.
Yes, a entire ecosystem, 3 enterprises, a multicloud network and microservices distributed.

exit from life with code 0 without ctrl-alt-delete and kill -9

Serenity.

Successfully finalizing a software project & achieving set goals within a set time.

"Ultimate" success for a dev?

I don't know what that would be, so I'll be answering that around my experience.

Start really poor, so when you start making good money, you value and appreciate it.
Work for a company (Startup/MNC doesn't matter), and build your network with people/clients.
Work really hard in the beginning era and fail as much as possible.
Quit said company and build your own client-base, cutting the middle men out of the equation.
Work on your terms after that, remotely obviously.
Years down the line, come up with your own idea and start a company which makes enough money to retire with ease, not worrying about saving up for retirement.

I think the "ultimate success" means success on a personal level:

Take a step back. Realize *this* does not matter. It allows you to build and support your own family. Be with your loved ones. Have pets. See your kids grow up. Grow old together. Looking back on a fulfilling life. Dying surrounded by your loved ones. Knowing, they are safe and cared for. I'm so proud of you what you have created out of nothing! You truly are a developer!

And now go back arguing about tabs vs. spaces on the internet.

Seeing all the office buildings and the goons of all upper management all burn to a crisp. They are very quickly reminded of their oppression and sociopathic values they have pushed onto the populous. In a perfect world, all the corporate scum who never considered once the detrimental effects of the poison they leech into the air, water, and blood of every creature on earth all should die horrible deaths. Fuck every single one of these blood sucking vampires who’s practice is only for the greed of their personal pleasure, jacking off to how many ways they can seize power from the individual.