saheb37

Yes, it's a feeling majority of us experience at some point or another. After writing code and making software for a few years, you feel it's not fun anymore.

You should experiment more and find out what tasks or activities you find fulfilling so you can look for roles that allow you to do them more. For instance, if you enjoy investigating issues or incidents, then there are roles that allow you to spend majority of your time doing that.

Looking back helps. Why did you get into programming in the first place? Perhaps you like working from scratch. So go back and do that. This is a good way to reevaluate whether you still like programming like you once did.

If you don't care about low level details and don't enjoy programming, that's fine too. You can explore management roles, where majority of time goes in managing people, processes, and/or products.

If you feel you still want to be on the tech side, there are plenty of roles that are worth exploring: platform engineer, data engineer, network engineer, compiler engineer, research engineer, database engineer, etc.

The field is vast; you can just keep expanding your breath. It's okay not to find a niche.

You can teach, or study more, then teach. Presuming you still like learning more about computer science.

You can write about tech, instead of writing code. Still be in tech industry, but write words instead of code. Communicate with humans, instead of computers.

You can go further away and still be in tech I suppose, get into math modelling roles or quant roles.

Also worth ruling out is burnout. If you are burned out, you probably won't find anything interesting. So take a break, and contemplate what sort of things interest you. Whatever piques your curiosity, just follow that, and see where that takes you.

How about INR (India)? Anytime soon?

It does resonate to some extent, but I still like software.

If you dislike the industry, you might still not like product/engineering-management roles.

It seems to me like myself, you need to find out what kind of work you like, what you'd explore for your own curiosity even if you are not paid.

Trying out OS/networks/compilers/data-science/research roles might be worth your while. But, if core CS is not your thing, it's possible you will find management roles (product/engineers) more satisfying.

I have quite enjoyed a couple of books by David Eagleman: The Brain, and Sum.

I haven't got around watching the movie yet, is it any good? I will give it a try.

I will take the bullet and suggest Ayn Rand's Fountainhead.

If you are a teenager it will definitely make you think and likely leave an impact on you. It's not a typical novel, more like philosophical ideas presented in the form of a novel. Ideal characters placed in real life. You will also understand why the world is divided into Ayn Rand lovers and haters.

It questions how the world works, how it should work, how people live their lives, and how they should live their lives, etc, etc.

Warning you, it's not filled with plots twists.