The formula for me seems to be: high impact combined with how ingenious I personally judge the project that be. I guess I want to be a wizard, casting benevolen

The formula for me seems to be: high impact combined with how ingenious I personally judge the project that be. I guess I want to be a wizard, casting benevolent spells for a grateful public. I’ve been lucky enough to have been paid to write open source code on multiple occasions. That’s a great shortcut to having a big impact on the world. The best stuff I ever did was something other engineers told me was impossible - but I did it and it was good enough that other people went and built businesses around it. Or, in one case, a project that my manager told me I was doing too much for became the foundation for an entire community’s work. However, probably the best for me was an algorithmic art project in the early days of social media. I was in between jobs and when I had the idea, I barely slept for a week. The code was terrible although the idea was interesting. Once the work was released, it was a modest sensation, and people were talking about it around the globe. One commenter even said it made her cry. I am still enough of an engineer that I had this “NAILED IT” moment. I remember looking at clubgoers on a Friday night, people I’d normally have felt irritated with/envious of, and thinking they had no idea how to really have fun. Lately though, I’ve found a slightly different source of satisfaction. In my last job, I started to manage some people and found it extremely satisfying to help people with their careers, particularly young engineers. I also led projects to reduce hiring bias. (You might notice that few of these high satisfaction projects had to do with how much money I was paid or whether it was something my manager wanted me to do. Still looking to square that circle.)