Unless I missed it, she didn't say for how many of those 38 years that programming sucked, though. Her examples of suckiness were all from just a few years ago.

Anyway, that's a potentially long time to be doing something you don't enjoy.

That's a difficult question. Essentially, some part of any job sucks. Even within a given field, some jobs and/or projects will suck more than others. Some tools and languages suck more for certain applications than for others.

I've always enjoyed—and still enjoy—the technical aspects of programming.

Since this just came in my email….

"Working at $FIRM offers you the opportunity to work in a fast-paced, challenging, startup environment with a team of passionate individuals who love bringing ideas to life. At $FIRM, no role is small and every person plays a part in the development of our game-changing technology."

fast-paced = you won't have time to think to solve the problems better

challenging = no one knows how to behave themselves, least of all the founders

startup environment = so forget reasonable workweeks and having any time on weekends

team of passionate individuals = they don't have lives, either

no role is small = you will be assigned roles that the last person quit over because it was so trivial

That's the kind of thing I'm done with.

You might find freelancing more appealing than these kinds of full time jobs as you describe.

38 years should be enough to deserve some retirement.