I did, but then I realize it isn't technology that fulfills me. It's my sense of accomplishment because I build (at least a few) things and I like to learn ne

I did, but then I realize it isn't technology that fulfills me. It's my sense of accomplishment because I build (at least a few) things and I like to learn new things. Even if those things have no day-to-day value in my work. That taught me that if I want to have a job that's fulfilling, it needs to have impact. I had my lowest sense of fulfillment working for contracting companies where my work was as likely shelved due to whole programs being cancelled and I'm just one of many projects. No matter what I did, it did not feel like I had an impact in the world. I also felt like I had little agency to change things, after a while. Months of wasted effort, weekends in the office, etc. go up in smoke. I considered ditching software development because it was fun, but brought me no sense of accomplishment. I looked at opening a store, going back to school to get a Masters in Tax Accounting (I used to be an accountant), or even law school. My sense of accomplishment came from actually doing side projects. It took me 10 or 15 years to connect those dots. For the last 5 years I've been working for a cloud/product company where I do feel my work directly impacts people. And that is fulfilling. I've watched the result of my efforts unblock numerous lines of revenue. I wasn't some kind of sole hero, but part of a team. But my contribution had a real, positive impact. The difference is my work actually had an impact. I currently program in bare metal C - a language I've known for the better part of 30 years. I live in an environment no more sophisticated than Visual Studio Code, CMake, and C. It is enjoyable. More than when I worked on cutting edge frameworks with all the 'best' tools. So it's obviously not the technology - it's the job. I could probably find that same sense of fulfillment doing any one of a dozen things. It's just that I'm probably undiagnosed something or other and I'm pathologically obsessed about all things related to computers. So probably a good alignment between my interest and my job. What I've learned is that I think I could go dig ditches, and as long as it had an impact, I would have a sense of accomplishment.