TLDR: learn to chill and enjoy your career and free time doing the things you like most, with the people you like the most.

I decided to get back to a technical role (from management) because it's what got me excited about tech in the first place; but I have become very protective of my time.

MY TIME is just that, and not for sale, and non-negotiable.

I don't mind not being the best in the room, and I feel it's better that my younger colleagues get a chance to take charge while I provide support when needed.

Focus on the important things, family, hobbies, friends, building your network, and enjoying your free time. In tech you can always have a nice career and a nice salary, even if you're not at "the top"... learn to chill and enjoy your career and the wonderful opportunity you have in this golden age of technology because it won't last forever.

Alternatively a hobby farm or vineyard can give you plenty of opportunities to do manual labour and have varying amounts of responsibility; and I imagine it would be quite a bit more enjoyable than an Amazon warehouse.

To each his own I suppose. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Of course I could be totally wrong.

Host your own infrastructure (ftp/email/www/etc.) and use Btc, and you will have a lot more liberty but not "reach"... so you can't have your cake and eat it too.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Same.

You don't have to become a different person, just get yourself through the rut, don't do something you know you'll regret. This is just a passing phase.

I’m rooting for you :)

I'll just say that you need to "man up". Life is not always fun/nice/enjoyable/easy/etc. and sometimes you just have to realize that your responsibilities are more important than your feelings; especially when children are involved.

Just know that what you're feeling is normal, it WILL pass (probably in a couple of short years), and you should resist doing anything stupid or permanent. Don't make mistakes with permanent consequences because you are going through a temporary rut.

Exercise and socializing will likely help take the edge off.

You have the good half of your life ahead of you, don't forget that.

If you still need convincing, maybe a therapist is the right choice.

Good luck friend.

The "high end" units that are shown in architectural design magazines and the like are really cool, they're modern, stylish, and really just someone's hobby... but the reality of mobile home living is very different.

I've have friends who lived in mobile homes and all I can say is that I'm thankful that I didn't have to.

In truth engineers often push back on features and business practices that seem sketchy and unethical. Their in-demand skill set and good salaries allow them to be more assertive and demanding of their supervisors/employers, but they are also just employees and have limited power to affect change.

I think that would be great, provided it was a global thing and not just individual.

Ultimately the deciding factor was the price and the GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, it was on sale, and Linux drivers were available for all of the hardware.

I'm running Pop! OS and haven't had any issues.

The Apple experience is more polished for sure, but after Linux, I doubt I will accept any form of proprietary OS/hardware for my personal computer ever again.

OP seems to have a poor experience with them and is switching for that reason.

I'm running Pop! OS linux and it worked out of the box, no special setup necessary. So far I'm happy with it and starting to ask myself why I didn't do this earlier. :)

I have also given up on Apple, but mostly because I can't see the value in it anymore, otherwise my experience with them has been satisfactory (Intel CPU models).

For the past few years I used a Microsoft Surface Pro because it seemed to have good build quality and high screen resolution, but despite this I have had to replace it as part of a recall due to a graphics hardware issue, so it was not without its flaws. On a side note, I found the Windows OS to be OK for non-dev work, but would always "work" on the Linux subsystem... so even though Windows supports it quite well, I would just suggest 100% Linux.

For 2022 I decided to buy a "gaming" laptop and switch to 100% Linux. The build quality is a little lower than Apple, and the screen resolution is not as good as Apple or Surface Pro, but it is still good, and when using my external monitor there is no difference.

The benefits are clear, however, for less than 50% of the cost I am getting superior performance, discrete GPU, excellent cooling, and NO LOCK-IN. There is also the added benefit of being able to play the occasional video game with great performance.

So far I don't regret it.

To be clear, I'd prefer not being locked up anywhere, but if you have no choice then at least the building with better amenities seems the logical choice. :)

With that said, my experience is that security issues get taken care of when they are very dangerous, or only after the main product tasks get done. Fixing minor issues in a (NEW) product/company that might not survive the year is a comparative waste of time... survival comes first usually.

I used to be able to (late 1990s/early 2000s) make a living on a mixture of niche websites, affiliate marketing, CPC arbitrage, and similar; but it just started drying up as more people gravitated to social media platforms, and unless you can skill up on social media marketing while getting lucky with their algorithms, you probably won't get far.

I decided to just move on because I never really liked the platforms and wanted stable employment for a while, but even now that I would be willing to risk the unpredictable income, it's nigh on impossible to get anything rolling. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯