In style, you're a mathematician (see the third item here: http://jcdverha.home.xs4all.nl/scijokes/6_2.html http://jcdverha.home.xs4all.nl/scijokes/6_2.html alt

In style, you're a mathematician (see the third item here: http://jcdverha.home.xs4all.nl/scijokes/6_2.html http://jcdverha.home.xs4all.nl/scijokes/6_2.html although I prefer Scientist to Physicist (perhaps because I was on a chemistry track)). Once you're satisfied there's a solution to the problem, you're happy. I'd say that as long as you occasionally reify your designs into real stuff so you know you're generally right---I assume you do this at work, as you say they pay you for it---you don't have a real problem. And if you're truly good at this, you should angle for software and systems architect positions. I certainly find my mental state and motivation shifting once I've found solutions to all the hard problems of a project I'm working on. And I by and large don't do personal projects; unless they're a means to an end, I've had more interesting things to do. (Now that I'm retired I'm working on changing that.)