"... but anyone ever leave the software world to do something unrelated?"
Yes, however I don't know how large the number of people who leave programming related jobs is. It would be interesting to know some numbers about this topic.
Anyway, I don't think these numbers really matter for your decision. What matters is how you feel about that. I think the best thing you can do is talking to people who were in a similar situation before deciding what you're going to do next.
Some time ago I posted a quite interesting story here on HN of a game programmer at Electronic Arts who left his job to be a coffee farmer:
Yes, however I don't know how large the number of people who leave programming related jobs is. It would be interesting to know some numbers about this topic.
Anyway, I don't think these numbers really matter for your decision. What matters is how you feel about that. I think the best thing you can do is talking to people who were in a similar situation before deciding what you're going to do next.
Some time ago I posted a quite interesting story here on HN of a game programmer at Electronic Arts who left his job to be a coffee farmer:
http://www.konaearth.com/Life/2006/060430/
Worth taking a look.