The dopamine rush hits with novel experiences… There is nothing novel about working with the same codebase day in and day out… BUT, I believe it is possible t

The dopamine rush hits with novel experiences… There is nothing novel about working with the same codebase day in and day out… BUT, I believe it is possible to find the novelty. I’ve found refactoring to be a very peaceful and creative exercise that gives me a healthy dose of dopamine.. you just have to “listen” to the code and follow the refactoring path. The creativity spikes happen when your deciding on what pattern to use or how to name something. It’s simple stuff, but it gets me by and I have found a way to get joy from it. Unless you want to work at a startup which can provide higher levels of ownership, uncertainty, loss, and reward, getting the dopamine rush will be harder to find on the stable path of an established company. It’s a trade-off.