Personally, I think you should come up with what exactly you plan to do if you stop programming. I realize you may have a lot of things in mind, but eventually

Personally, I think you should come up with what exactly you plan to do if you stop programming. I realize you may have a lot of things in mind, but eventually you'd have to pick one and try it. Try picking one now. Does that job seem particularly appealing to you? Why? If you can come up with good reasons, by all means go for it. If you can't, why go do something you're worse at (and presumably will be paid less for) if you're going to be similarly unfulfilled? Your feelings are totally understandable. I just think you're giving your current occupation short shrift if you're weighing it against the abstract concept of "doing something else", even if you have a general field in mind. Every job has its downsides, and you need to be able to weigh those against the ones you're painfully aware of with programming. Until you have a concrete idea for another job, you can't do that.