Surely I don't have as much industry coding experience as many people around here, but during and for a while after my undergraduate education I worked a couple

Surely I don't have as much industry coding experience as many people around here, but during and for a while after my undergraduate education I worked a couple different programming positions - mostly web development. What I saw was stark difference between the environments not from the type of work, but simply the people and the general attitude of the administration. One job was a very small web dev startup and it was a fantastic experience. I worked there for about two and half years, getting more solid in both server and client-side programming. Of course after the first six months, I hit the so-called intellectual wall, but I was lucky enough that I was allowed to work on internal R&D with one of the other programmers. That was probably where I had the most fun at that particular job. Another job I had, though, was quite similar to what you describe. I was consulting for a company who had a couple of their own programmers who refused to learn anything, just coded like monkeys locked in a cage and the people in charge didn't care because they really couldn't tell the difference. My suggestion would be that it's not typical to find poeple that dissatisfied in a place like this, where startup job postings are everywhere and we obviously have enough time and energy to keep up with all the posts :D If you aren't terribly concerned about lots of cash, check out a university and find a startup or two. They are using fast-moving and energetic. Once they get the tech base going, they'll definitely bring in more and you can make sure to keep the vibe going, etc. If changing jobs isn't possible, I'd say find some user a user group - I hear about a lot in London - and network with them. It can help just to have some facetime with others who share your passions. Good Luck!