You can't always have it both ways, having interesting, challenging problems every day and also making good money, sometimes it works out that way, other times

You can't always have it both ways, having interesting, challenging problems every day and also making good money, sometimes it works out that way, other times not. I was in a somewhat similar situation where I left a very small startup at one point for a much more boring, but stable job, however I felt it ended up giving me time to explore my own interests relating to programming and even start some personal projects, where I otherwise would not have had the time. Why not take the slower pace and use the extra time to work on some of your own projects and plan out where you want to go next, sometimes some "down time", relatively speaking, in a career, can be a good thing