[andersource]

Personally the way I examine dissatisfaction with a project is by comparing my (mostly subconscious) expectations with reality, then asking why the major gaps exist. These gaps could sometimes be equivalent to the values mentioned in the article (e.g. I was expecting to learn this cool new technology but we're using the same old thing), but many other things could bubble up. E.g. expectation to spend all day developing new features vs. reality of hunting down bugs, expectation of everyone agreeing with my opinions vs. reality of some disagreements, etc. Many times it's surprisingly easy to match my expectations with reality once the gap is explicit. I've found that the feeling of disillusionment described is usually the result of my subconscious finding it progressively harder to ignore the gap between expectations and reality.