Sitting here mid-career, I suppose (maybe farther along than that—we'll see how the whole age discrimination thing works out in a couple years), I'm now convinced that the problem is doing the same thing week. After week. After week.

I think I'd be absolutely thrilled to be in this industry, still, if I wrote code... I dunno, 25-30 weeks per year, then did literally anything else the other weeks, including any kind of work that didn't involve staring at a screen.

It's doing the same thing almost all damn year that makes is such a grind.

I like working, actually. I hate doing the exact same work 48+ weeks per year. HATE it.