What I've learned over the years is that X can be fun but X industry can be less fun and sometimes mindless, boring, or even soul crushing. Early in my life I

What I've learned over the years is that X can be fun but X industry can be less fun and sometimes mindless, boring, or even soul crushing. Early in my life I was very into fashion and so I opened a store. Fashion was fun and interesting to me. The fashion industry was less so. Next I tried food. Making and consuming food was fun. The restaurant industry, again, was less so. Today I'm a software engineer. I always wrote code as a hobby (started when was about 11). I love technology and software. Again however, the technology industry leaves me unfulfilled. I have no plans to leave tech now though. My life is very different. I'm 37. I have a wife and a child. I have other hobbies that I like a lot and so my career in the tech industry is a means to an end. The end being financial support for my family and hobbies. I don't mean to say that I get to gratification from my work. I do really love working on some of the technical problems I encounter at work and I really like the people on my team. Overall it's a positive experience if I can put out of my mind the larger system that I'm in and how I feel about that.