You're young, go get a taste of different fields, if only for a couple of weeks or months. I'm a data engineer/ infra person, self-employed for 6 years. Ups a

You're young, go get a taste of different fields, if only for a couple of weeks or months. I'm a data engineer/ infra person, self-employed for 6 years. Ups and downs are natural and my perspective on the current market environment is just that everyone is confused as hell about where the future peak efficiency use of human computer science knowledge will be. LLMs are nascent, their potential is clearly showing, but nobody really knows what is going to stick. Everyone - company or programmer - is trying to hedge their bets on the future. Whatever comes, there will be things humans will need to do. Your best bet is to stay interested, stay curious and stay flexible. I tried carpentry two years back, out of the same desire to escape the inesacapable mundaneness of a medium stage programming career. What I can tell you is that it made me appreciate programming again with a strong verve. Your margin of error in carpentry is slim to none. Mess something up, you might need to throw away a ton of material and start from scratch. Feedback loops are sloooow. Try something for the first time and realize you're missing this super specific tool to get it to work? Well, shell out some dollars, wait two days for delivery, start again. While desk work without exercise is unhealthy, it's no comparison to carpentry or other handiwork. If you're being dizzy and unatentive while planing a piece of wood wor working with a machine saw or using a high powered milling machine, you might injur yourself for life. Add to that breathing wood dust or getting it into your eyes etc. My take is that it is currently harder to be optimistic about the future, but if the world is an oyster, it's still a much bigger oyster in the hands of someone who can program than literally any other trade out there.