[sampl]

This article equates “exciting work” with “9-5 job at BigCo”.

After going independent, my impact has only gotten bigger and my work more interesting and engaging. Write and share what you’ve learned, consult, do OSS, be an “emeritus”, work part time... these require the ability to self-manage, but it’s a skill that can be learned like anything else.

Why a financially independent person would spend most of their waking hours chipping away on Amazon’s problems is baffling to me.

[jypepin]

I think he explains it pretty clearly. Seems like pretty low stress for him, he seems to be enjoying it and it gives him the opportunity to work on high scale projects, which is more tricky to get when being independent.

I guess the perfect work for him would be to find a way to start contracting for his current position, but I can see how he's happy at work.

On another note, I became independent myself recently and I totally agree with you. I don't see myself going back to another company ever, but I'm still opened to the idea, because it might allow me to get to work on super interesting problems somehow.

[jimbokun]

His first item under Reasons to Keep Working:

"I get to write soft­ware that fil­ters and routes a mil­lion mes­sages a sec­ond."

So it seems he likes the problems he gets to work on, and the resources he can access, at Amazon.