Imho you should switch 1) and 4) :) Is there any chance that you could freelance for your current company.. or at least work half time? About your dream proje

Imho you should switch 1) and 4) :) Is there any chance that you could freelance for your current company.. or at least work half time? About your dream project: Try to get steady validation from the beginning. Find your first user first. I just started a little side project and without encouragement and a tiny amount of power users, I would have stopped before I really started. Marketing to developers is incredible hard (at least for me). Prepare for frustration. Getting into the right flow is one problem I face myself on a regular base. What helps me a lot is to just relax a bit (days!) and trust myself to do the coding somewhere in my brain as background job. After being afk for some time I can't wait to get back and make somehow progress. Just do your job for another two weeks and really use your free time to get some rest and have some fun. Perhaps your outlook changes a bit after that. What was the result from going to startup meetings? Never been to one, planing to visit some meetings in my area, but no clue what to expect.