For a non “Valley” perspective, your work situation sounds fine TBH. You are already the defacto dev lead (making it official could mean meetings). Hobbies, sp

For a non “Valley” perspective, your work situation sounds fine TBH. You are already the defacto dev lead (making it official could mean meetings). Hobbies, sports, instruments, hell even a book club. Get social outside of work. Treat it the same as you’ve been treating your career (dig in and get good). You’ll find you make friends outside of work, but often at work too, as you may have hobbies in common with others at your job. This will naturally lead to a good work balance, because you may end up wanting to clock out early to get back to your hobby. You’re in a great negotiating position to reduce your hours when that happens.