Programming can be very challenging mentally and very exhausting. Maybe it's cushier when working on one's own code, but spending day after day untangling messes in corporate codebases is absolutely draining. There are days I wish my work was physical because there'd be something to show for it. Not only is programming difficult, but a hard day's work doesn't clearly deliver value a lot of the time. For instance, I really couldn't tell you what I've built in the last year that brought value to customers. I know I've fixed things... but none of that means anything to anyone who didn't report or fix those issues. They shouldn't have existed in the first place.
I understand you. My buddy’s a general contractor, and he said it feels good to drive down a street and say “I built that house, and put that roof on, and remodeled that one…”
I wouldn’t swap places with him, but I do envy him that.
