I started in ROM BASIC at 9 years old. Had my first philosophical epiphany that a string is a null terminated character array at 11 (and what's a null anyway?)

I started in ROM BASIC at 9 years old. Had my first philosophical epiphany that a string is a null terminated character array at 11 (and what's a null anyway?) I was inching into the six figures in my early 20s, and was running a multinational technology team soon after that. I actually started professionally in sys admin and production engineering, with websites on the side. Now I snootily say I'm a back end business applications developer (though we're all mostly full stack web these days.) I've cashed out (modest) stock options, quit jobs to travel the world for a year here and there, burned out, re-acclimated, and now work 100% freelance for years (remote only for ten years before COVID was the office killer.) I can see from other comments that a lot of burnout kills the joy of technology. While I can't say I haven't "been there", you can find a ways to work through it. It's actually disappointing how the state of the art continually devolves. At your peak your cognitive problem solving will conjure magnificent abstractions which the world will be unworthy of. LLM assist is a fine example of reverse evolution. Coding is more like being a short order chef than a gorme cook. A mind adept in problem solving, truly understanding technology, and income fluidity are still nice, yet turning something intimate into your grind is ... well ... prostitution. Keep your cash locked up and don't live like a middle American consumer, and when the time comes you'll have "screw you" money you can go off and do your own thing with.