> Should I just switch careers? You certainly seem to be in a rut, but before you take up woodworking or glassblowing try branching out and do some programming

> Should I just switch careers? You certainly seem to be in a rut, but before you take up woodworking or glassblowing try branching out and do some programming in a totally different area. This could lead to a change of career focus but you would have to start in a part-time/hobby way. I can't make any concrete suggestions since I don't know you or your circumstances, but make radical changes. Choose a new language, get into a totally different programming area, think of your own projects where you have total control. Personally, I work in the scientific area doing a lot of varied work including visualization. I have an embedded programming hobby in the Arduino world using C/C++. I have been making measuring instruments for ham radio but currently I'm in the middle of three clock projects. All of them are designed to JUST WORK™. They guess the current timezone, take time from the internet and try to handle daylight savings changes automatically. Configuration, to set access point and password, is done through a web server that runs on the clock acting as an access point. I cut acrylic cases for them and they are good enough to make nice gifts. It's very satisfying to take a project from the back of the envelope through to completion, and it appears that is something you are missing.