I see this not so much as, “let me quit my swe job to become a plumber” but more so a fundamental alienation from labor (on behalf of OP). I think we can all ag

I see this not so much as, “let me quit my swe job to become a plumber” but more so a fundamental alienation from labor (on behalf of OP). I think we can all agree that using intelligence to create abstract flows in code is engaging and rewarding. It’s the everything else that makes us feel alienated: the politics/pressure of the company, the “mba types”, the mission of the company itself to solve a problem that isn’t even all that real or impactful ie optimizing video advertising — and the perverse ways management tries to sell it as world changing work — m that makes us look to the other side and wonder if say using our hands to make physical structures might being a closer relationship to our work. A rejection of cognitive dissonance or something. Marx touches on this concept of alienation of labor [0]. Not pushing Marxism at all here, just using one of his lesser known theories to tease out this topic.