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Comment by howfrontoage | Hacker News Reader

You are missing agency.

May try a retro computing project. Restore you old PC, code something in basic languages, on a very low powered machine. Exclude any potential revenue ideas from what you are doing.

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Agency, exactly. In my previous job I was at the bottom of the food chain, just doing tickets, with no real sense of agency or care for the project as a whole. I worked my daily hours and rarely a second past.

I found a new job where my responsibilities are now “build everything from scratch because we have literally nothing”, and it’s so empowering to feel that my creative and technical skills are being valued. Consequently I’m way more invested now than I ever was before.

The last sentence hit home, thank you. I get huge motivation boost whenever anyone uses anything I make (even if it's single person). So perhaps aiming towards anything that excludes revenue is the way to go. It's a bit difficult because I'm maybe overly focused on money/paycheck. But your comment to "exclude revenue" hits home.

There are things you enjoy, and there are things you get paid for, but if you try to do both at the same time sometimes the result is a compromise that is neither paid well nor enjoyable.

(The converse problem is that if you keep your hobby and job separate, it takes more time. And you need some extra time for dating/family, friends, sport, etc.)

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