> Yet I haven't heard of a single doctor who quit his practice and moved to Colorado to run a ski lodge. When I ask why, they all give the same response: the patients. Every day they see patients brought back to health, the bullshit recedes into the background, and they're reminded why they got into medicine.
That kind of actual positive impact isn't the norm in tech.
I was so lucky as to become the TL of the Code Search UI at Google less than a year after I joined. While there were certainly frustrations, one thing that was wonderful was meeting random SWEs and have them go "Code Search is awesome!" That's the equivalent of meeting the patient. Getting regular reminders of how what you do actually helps real people is a big booster. Certainly difficult to do for some programming jobs, but if that's the case, maybe ask yourself if you're working on the right part.
That kind of actual positive impact isn't the norm in tech.