In contrast working as a contractor, intentionally contributing to more than one job per year, taking a big salary hit to be on a cool project with cool people are all things that are completely and utterly insane. No reasonable people would do such a thing.
And one of my side project was a mini MPORG with no combat, just some puzzles. Obviously no one can make good money providing something like that, and turning such a thing into a good job opportunity is not possible.
Take your meds and get a steady job at a big company, or better yet the Federal Government.
It is kind of surprising to me that this is considered so odd. Have any long time tech workers here tried to explain how their work is organized to anyone who has worked for the federal government for a decade or two? Maybe I was just lucky.