Well, it's intellectually engaging, and (if you have halfway decent ergonomics) not particularly physically taxing.
Is it what I'd do with my time if I didn't have to make a living? Maybe a few hours a week.
Is it more enjoyable than most of the alternative ways I could imagine making a living? Hell yeah!
Does it have its exhausting, hellish days and political bullshit? Doesn't everything?
Could I stand to do it in a bureaucratic corporate setting, doing nothing but maintaining a small corner of some horrible enterprise monstrosity and filing TPS reports? Probably not.
How happy am I doing it in the small company / startup setting I've been in for the last 15 years, with plenty of autonomy and a decent proportion of green-field work? About as happy as I'm going to be working any "day job".
Is it what I'd do with my time if I didn't have to make a living? Maybe a few hours a week.
Is it more enjoyable than most of the alternative ways I could imagine making a living? Hell yeah!
Does it have its exhausting, hellish days and political bullshit? Doesn't everything?
Could I stand to do it in a bureaucratic corporate setting, doing nothing but maintaining a small corner of some horrible enterprise monstrosity and filing TPS reports? Probably not.
How happy am I doing it in the small company / startup setting I've been in for the last 15 years, with plenty of autonomy and a decent proportion of green-field work? About as happy as I'm going to be working any "day job".