>> I don't particularly care about meaningful work, I enjoy solving problems that matter and I'm good at it so I want to do that.

Isn't this the same thing? Meaningful is highly personal & contextual, so a problem that matters IMO definitely is meaningful.

Being good at something valaueable that you enjoy is one of the key measures of a life well lived for me, so kudos on that.

Thanks for posting this. I was surprised to see the comments in this thread weighing so heavily in the opposite direction.

Finding meaning in your job doesn't mean that you have to accept terrible pay and long hours. It just means that you've put thought into what you'd like to get out of your career besides a salary. It's possible to find a realistic middle ground between fulfillment and max salary.

Because everyone spends the better part of their day at work, performing work that has no meaning to you comes at huge cost. You will never recover that time.

Personally, I figured I had enough to be comfortable and would rather spend my limited time optimizing things other than my W2. My last career move was an 80% pay cut. In retirement, I would do similar work according to my interests, so why not cut to the chase?

Can you say more about the difference between impact and meaning? What would be an example of meaningless impact that has value to you?

To me, meaningful would mean something like helping the poor or working for a decent non-profit.

On the other hand, working for an ad-tech company and increasing revenue by 40% through some machine learning would have impact (on the company, clients, users, etc.) but not be particularly meaningful.

I don't see "meaningful" as referring to something like helping the poor, I see it as referring to feeling fulfilled. If that involves helping the poor, more power to you. Me, I took a $20k paycut to switch from writing node js all day to pen testing at another firm and I could not be happier. It's been two years since switching and I still look forward to waking up and going to work each day instead of groaning and dying a little on the inside. Paying $20k/year to be happy and feel fulfilled is a complete steal in my book.

Just my own anecdata though.

Beware the seduction of perceived martyrdom. Are you really helping people, just making yourself feel good, or are you doing what you think other people will perceive as selfless? And yes, there's overlap between them all.

Ad tech is a second order business. You're helping other businesses fulfill their purpose. I don't blame you for not finding a connection to value there, but that doesn't mean you can't find one in traditional industry.

It feels like you’re talking about fulfilment, at which point we’re not really talking about the work itself, but the stuff that gets you out of bed in the morning.