" Satisfying daily job "

To answer your question .. Lets make it "Satisfying daily job till your last breath".

I have a few more years of experience than you. My response to this was to scale back to hometown and spend more quality time with family. (Aging parents and generation handover)

This required some basic inner engineering. (the points are random and not chronologically arranged )

1. I worked on things which did not require any permission from anyone. There were a lot of pending IT projects for myself which were done half assed. Finally i had time to finish them to my satisfaction.

2. Joined Govt job as a contractor and worked in different department to enable their e-Governance initiatives. I expected it to be long term but soon (4 years) got bored.

(IgnoreThis: ADHAAR id , Toll Roads, Social Justice for women and kids , Department of Economics and Statistics, State Planning commission. This coincided with the external factors of Narendra Modi becoming the PM in 2014-till date. Whatever I have worked on is still working and it is some solace but the rot has happened and its not trustworthy anymore since data massaging for beautiful reports is one of painful realities of Govt Work )

3. Convinced wife to let me take a 6 month break from job and See the action on ground of all these govt projects. Did that and decided to join startups.

4. Did a lot of pro-bono work in different domains.From WildLife Tiger Reserves to App building for Real estate to working for NGOs and travelling to remote Tier 3 cities and villages and giving seminars on technology and the upcoming changes. ( this was in 2018-19 pre covid).

5. By now yr2020+ tech was changing so furiously, it was hard to keep up. Number of services in AWS just made no sense... Kept working with startups who were NOT using the latest and greatest. They just wanted something to keep them floating on the web.

6. Enabled other revenue sources (no relation to IT)

7. Since then I have connected to the tech ecosystem in a way that suites me. Solidified my credentials as a teacher by giving some govt exams (UGC NET and MPSET as called in this part of world). I love teaching and people have validated it over time. (Engaged in-person 4000 People crowd for 4-5hrs). When you try something new u get to know your superpowers. ( Failures teach you more, do keep a log of new things you try. We stop trying after we get few years into a job)

8. Made a lot of friends elder as well as junior with whom I want to spend rest of my life. I love to work with them and its wonderful. I prefer to meet my colleagues and classmates in person.(At least once in few months).

9. I had to let go of the urge to earn as much as I was earning. Getting used to this is pretty difficult choice. I found that saving 1 equates to earning 6 ... so reduced my expenses and this leverage helped a lot.

10. Supported wife to get back on her career. This required a lot of managing as well. (Learning to cook was trial through fire. Today I feel everyone should know how to cook their favorite recipes. It is sheer joy to cook/bake for your friends and family)

To summarise, It was a mid-life retirement to find about the world. We stay in our little pond and think this is the whole world. When we explore we end up finding our own "self". What I like and what I do not. What pisses me off and how to manage that without doing a lot of damage to relations and quality of life and that prepares you to do "Satisfying daily job till your last breath".

PS1: Surprisingly it is easier than ever to do WFH.You need to find the work that you can do better than anyone else using AI as a tool. AI is not a worker .. AI is a tool just like a Mixer/Grinder/Juicer. This is the future of work as I found it to be.

PS2: Being a house husband has a lot of social stigma. Remember to keep your spouse happy as this causes emotional roller coaster which is not good for kids.

PS3: Experiment with your daily routine. Find your circadian rythm.Keep it ...