If I were any good at spotting problems for which writing novel software is a good solution, valuable enough to be worth the time it takes, I wouldn't need an e

If I were any good at spotting problems for which writing novel software is a good solution, valuable enough to be worth the time it takes, I wouldn't need an employer because I'd have (or at least be a co-founder of) one or more successful software businesses. The reason I need employment as a dev is precisely because I'm not much good at finding those kinds of problems. Problems I personally have almost never pass the point on the cost/benefit curve for which it's worth firing up a text editor, and when they do the "solution" is usually a few lines of shell or something similarly trivial. I used to get excited about personal projects, years and years ago, but that was mostly because I didn't realize what solutions already existed so was reinventing the wheel a lot. Plus I just had a whole lot more free time. I also don't do a lot of plumbing or wiring or wall-framing or drywalling for their own sake. Though I do find a lot more good reasons to do those things in my personal life, than I find good reasons for writing code.