I am consistently enjoying myself more when doing coding side projects, than anything at work. I think that's just ... sort of normal when your profession and your hobby are the same thing - when you don't have any boss except yourself.
At work I hold things an extra day or more so I have something easy to say at the standup. Stands ups at work force this slow pace because it sounds better and is easier for others to follow.
Other people are doing the fun/interesting stuff, project managers, product owners, scrum masters, etc etc are doing all of the fun interesting figuring out/thinking, and then it's just your job to code it.
When you work on side projects, you get to wear all of those other hats and it's way more rewarding
So it could be that, if you’re in a world where you aren’t getting to do any of the fun figuring-out stuff, perhaps that’s a problem with the workplace structure rather than with programming generally.
I enjoy a bit of everything, and am apparently lucky to have been able to do it for a long time.
I've never looked at a product owner or a scrum master and thought to myself, "man, those guys get to have all the fun." I've more often thought, "wow, they have to answer to three people, two of whom are assholes, who have four opinions on how things should be done between them."
But I use my table saw because I want to build certain stuff. Maybe a cabinet or something. You would never catch me using my table saw or programming “just for fun.”
And if I’m not enjoying what I’m building, it’s not like the tool will somehow make it enjoyable.
If you don't mind me asking how much were you earning as a developer and how much do you earn driving lorries?
That said, the newer generation of trucks are so smooth I don’t think that’s as much of an issue as it may have been in previous generations.
Wage wise, working as a developer in the UK (working for small consultancies, not startups etc) my wage topped out at around 38k - last year driving I earnt 46k and this year with promotion (from rigid to articulated vehicles) and annual payrise, plus assuming I work a similar amount of hours I’m estimating 52-55k (all before tax)
Oh and we have public transport that actually works and walkable cities, so at least in urban areas where you find the techies, we don't need a big-ass gas guzzling SUV to get to work or to go and grab some basic groceries. We go to work on the subway/streetcar, and we walk by foot or use a bike to go and shop groceries.
Americans always boast about how much they earn compared to us (Western) Europeans, but IME when you make them break down their monthly budget, it usually turns out that after deducting fixed costs, we are roughly the same in purchasing power, and we're happier on top of that as we don't have to fear a random hospital visit might leave us with a 10k$ bill.
I grew up in a suburb of a relatively dense Western European city with ~250k people. The city has buses, but everyone I know gets to work by car. Horrible traffic - 15 mile highway commutes take 45 minutes in the morning. When I was growing up I went to school by car. Nowadays when my father needs groceries he drives for 5 minutes (rather than walk for 15).
Since moving to the US I haven't driven at all - though I live in New York, so it's obviously a special case. For healthcare, "a random hospital visit might leave us with a 10k$ bill" doesn't exist for tech workers - as anyone who's actually worked in tech in the US would know. It's true that the US healthcare has severe access problems for a large portion of the population. But those problems are non-existent for tech workers with employer insurance and bounded out-of-pocket costs.
I've never driven a Lorry, but I did drive for a living, and also drive long distances regularly.
But I find my car seat much more comfortable than my desk chair, and my posture much better in the car than one I can maintain while sitting at a desk and typing.
Of course, if you're doing very long drives you may not get as many opportunities to stand up and stretch your legs, but I'd imagine lorry drivers would have this opportunity once every hour or so.
Now, sitting in my home office in a comfy chair with no vibrations, no continuous noise and no apparent imminent potential for death is most definitely my preferred way to spend 8 hours a day.
Next year is going to be a stay-cation!
Typing I'm not able to recline and comfortably type. It's possibly a different chair, desk, keyboard, and monitor setup could help with this but I'm self-employed right now and not able to shell that out for what would amount to experiments which I don't expect to be particularly fruitful.
I have worked in a number of offices and with a variety of setups when employers were footing the bill, and have yet to find one that was significantly more comfortable than my current setup.
When driving I'm in much more of a relaxed reclining position and just steering. Long distances I can add cruise control to the mix. Making minor adjustments to the steering wheel is completely different from the wrist/fingertip stress of typing, and good posture when working at a desk requires being more upright, which in my experience ends up putting more stress on my back and neck also.