[rubbingalcohol]

What would you do with your career if you could do anything you wanted? It's hard to give advice without a sense of what you'd rather be doing.

For whatever it's worth, I'm going through a similar dilemma. My compensation is high, but I don't feel fulfilled by the work and there are other things I'd rather do for less money. Unlike you I'm in a startup and leaving would really mess things up for them, so I'm holding out.

[tempsolution]

You do realize that this feeling is not mutual? Companies don't give a shit about their employees as long as it doesn't benefit them. They are not humans, they are "things" made out of humans. And the trick is that they use social structure to scam you into thinking that leaving the company makes things worse for your other "human" team mates. So yes, right now they want to keep you, but once you are not essential anymore, they will drop you like a hot piece of iron. It's funny that somehow companies manage to instill some sort of "compassion" in their employees and you seem to be an example that this actually works sometimes.

[emchamp]

Perhaps quitting would tank the company performance and thus making their (presumably private) stock options worth nothing?

Unless this is all cash for a privately held startup in which case, where do I sign up?