Ask HN: How do you generate rewarding leads?

For some of you, this may amount to a sort of secret sauce, but I'm wondering: How can I generate fulfilling leads? I find that the best jobs either just sort of fall on me when I least expect it or are the result of an incredibly time-consuming (and sometimes fraught with emotional uncertainty) campaign of lead-generation. I feel confident about my work, excited to help people, and capable of taking on zany, bizarre, opaque challenges on a self-starting basis. Yet, most of the jobs that I come across are either 1) insufficiently challenging (and thus below a budget that I can comfortably consider) or 2) a logistical mismatch (ie, looking for full-time). How can I generate leads that are fulfilling and a good match for me? Without spending weeks and weeks doing it?