There are definitely ways to make value in software, the examples you give are about the technology, and not the end-product, so it's tough to gage from those d

There are definitely ways to make value in software, the examples you give are about the technology, and not the end-product, so it's tough to gage from those details what impact you may have had. I built an ML system for a drop-ship retailer which took over a miserable job which was done by 20 people, and turned it into a part-time job for 2 people. It was meaningful, not because of what it did directly, but because it took a horrible, and somewhat meaningless job for a human, and replaced it with a machine that could do it much quicker. The two people who stayed in part-time where really happy to not spend all day doing data-entry, and they picked-up other work in the company doing more interesting things. I don't know what happened to the people who were laid-off, but I hope they went on to more interesting things. My co-founder and I come from a research oriented world (CSIRO) and my co-founder, in particular, is used to working on early deep-tech. We were working in telehealth years before that was a thing, but we're still feel that nobody really WANTS to do telehealth, so we're happy to not be in that field anymore. At our startup SoundMind.co we're working on improve sleep performance for millions of people (though starting off with thousands). One of the things my co-founder says he loves about what we're doing is that he can see and measure the real-life impact we are having. Of course, I've also worked on things that I don't make a difference, like an app for the local pizza chain, a scheduling app for shift-workers that never went anywhere, and more. You also mention that "It's been a blast!" which is great. What percentage of people can say that about their job, and take home a good salary? Software can definitely be more than just moving money from one person to another. Sometimes you also have to look at the bigger picture of how the software you're writing is being used. The janitor at the hospital isn't just cleaning the floors, he's making the hospital germ free so people don't get sick. Sometimes it's a bit about how you are framing the job.