[kostarelo]

I remember vividly the times when I was so much impressed of every single line of code I've written that day. I would stay up late at nights just to make the perfect piece of code, the perfect UI, the perfect architecture diagram, etc etc. To me, that feeling was life-giving.

Nowadays and after lots of years of experience mainly in early-stage startup environments, I don't even care about the code or the low level stuff.

I'm trying to embody my self to the mission. I'm looking for the right metrics to watch and when these metrics are impacted by my actions (or my teams' actions because these environments tend to be very team-driven) thats when I get the same feeling as when I was writing those Visual Studio LoCs and was building those grey UIs with MS Access for data storage.

With the right mission and metrics, comes a problem. With the right problem that will motivate you and excite you, comes the solution. And the solution will be a package of the right code, the right UI, the right line of communication, the right team policies.

I've stopped using the term software engineer for my self, I prefer the term product engineer. And building the right product is my mission.

If you haven't explored that path, of changing your perspective of what gives you that feeling, maybe it would be helpful before deciding to go live in a farm. :) All the best.

I would also like to hear from people that went through that path and where that lead them because I'm still early in my career (in my 30s now).