Wow. I thought I was alone. Your post made my day. I’ve been programming for 20 years and while the career has afforded me a very nice lifestyle, I have hated practically every day of it. I would get out in a heartbeat if I knew of another option that would allow me the same standard of living. What a totally out of control rat race. Every day a new paradigm, a new “right” way and of course the scornful “old” ways. They’d have you raise your roof up on rotating hydraulic lifts and rotate the building structure in order to change a light bulb… because just screwing in a light bulb is just so 20th century old school. You post a question “how do i do X?” and you get 12 replies of “why would you want to do a dumb thing like X? You should be doing A+b/c^15-sqrt(infinity) + 2”. So many smug, self-satisfied experts telling you how everything you’ve ever learned is backward and wrong. I wonder how many times architects reinvented the door hinge before they settled on “door hinge”. I mean door hinges seem so outdated to me. Why isn’t there a better way?
I wish I had an answer for you other than just to say you’re not completely alone. I do not. I’ll go to work tomorrow and hate it even more than I did today.