As someone who builds tools for developers, my interest was initially to make it easier for me to build apps myself. I didn't quite know what I wanted to build

As someone who builds tools for developers, my interest was initially to make it easier for me to build apps myself. I didn't quite know what I wanted to build, but I knew I wanted to build it fast, so I built a company around web development tools. Then came the task of proving that it was capable. That it actually could build apps, so I had to build some apps on it myself. How? Which? Why? Well, so to do that, I have to become someone else. I have to become someone else who needs software. Ironically, software developers have the least use for software of anyone. Our life, as the OP states, is filled with developing. So stop being a developer. Since then, I've taken up gardening. There are tens of thousands of plants. Searching through them to find the right one for you is almost impossible. It's like finding stocks... there's another app! So get a hobby find something you like outside developing and get into the mind of someone whose life is as filled with that hobby as your life is filled with developing. Yes, that means you'll have to stop developing a bit, not really though. You'll mostly just be developing something for your other self. The other self with the hobby outside developing -- plants or stocks or camping. It doesn't really matter. For every topic there is, there's probably an improvement to the process. Imagine if I, someone who needs a plant app, and someone with algorithmic identification algorithms got together and built a plant identification system that would work on uploaded photos. I'd love that. I'd love to know what kind of plants are in my yard and I guarantee others would like it too.