Ex-FAANG here. Specifically about 'what the problem is'...Quite often people work to support their lives--in the sense of food on the table/retirement and in th

Ex-FAANG here. Specifically about 'what the problem is'...Quite often people work to support their lives--in the sense of food on the table/retirement and in the sense of having space and money for intellectual or passion pursuits. You seem to have the food-on-table thing figured out. Do you have an actual fulfilling life outside work that helps create meaning to your work? This meaning may even be "I love work", but feedback loops giving meaning to what we do are key to feeling fulfilled. What I can tell you is that people more successfully attempt to understand the nature of their crisis _after_ they get out, because the daily grind occupies most of their brain and life. If you can figure out _before_ leaving, however, you can use a few months of work time to appropriately gear yourself to a new endeavour. This may mean leaving your FAANG or changing jobs within it. Other things to consider: shorter work week, sabbatical, work rotation, shoot the sh*t with an EAP therapist if your FAANG offers HIPAA-compliant services or your own outside person, make your side coding project a new company (your FAANG may have policies about that though).