Both of those experiences exist, though - if you want to build applications from scratch, go join a really early stage startup. It's strange to me that people a

Both of those experiences exist, though - if you want to build applications from scratch, go join a really early stage startup. It's strange to me that people are surprised that when you're one of hundreds or thousands of software developers in an organization that you don't get to work on freewheeling projects based on what you want to do. Also, I don't think there's a platonic ideal of a software developer - there's a lot of mid-40s devs who have children and whose platonic ideal is a well-paying job with good work-life balance.