[Swizec]

As someone who comes from a CS background, spent many years as a backend web developer, and is now focusing mostly on frontend ...

... I go where the complexity goes[1]. In the age where most [web] backends are just glorified DB wrappers with an API, and the main app is on the frontend - I'm gonna stick to frontend, thanks.

Although it's starting to look more and more like I should rekindle my interest in non-research[2] machine learning and AI.

[1] complexity and users, really. You could call it "the market"

[2] with much regret, I have discovered that I am too impatient/dumb/product-focused to do well in research.

[marssaxman]

I sometimes wish I could just go where the market goes, but I can't. I've never learned how to aim the analytical engine in my head, only to figure out where it is pointing, so I can try to put myself into a job where someone will pay me to think about whatever it is that I am apparently going to be spending my time thinking about next.

Nothing about the web inspires me or engages my attention, which has left me wondering lately whether I'm still in the right industry. Not sure what else I could reasonably do for a living, though, since I doubt my brain is going to stop working on software problems whether I'm still getting paid to work on them or not.