Ultimately I think it's difficult to find a job with the correct combination of everything you want. I don't think this is unique to software development. I've

Ultimately I think it's difficult to find a job with the correct combination of everything you want. I don't think this is unique to software development. I've worked in places in London that I really enjoyed. Good colleagues, good environment, tip top. But then you're in a place with a hellish cost of living, and it's basically a requirement to play office politics and earn $BIGNUM, else you'll be in a pokey flat with a shit commute forever. And that can really eat in to motivation - because suddenly your work is no longer about the craft, it's about increasing your personal numbers. I imagine the same to be true in SV/SF. You can then have the other extreme, whereby perhaps you have a very low cost of living, but there's 1 software company and you either work there or not. Remote work can help to solve this, but there are a whole bunch of unsolved social issues there. A lot of the stuff I read on here about burnout I think isn't really linked to the work itself. It's the whole environment - everything feeds in.