[sjg007]

People are happiest when their needs are met, where they can self-actualize, help and work with others. There are a lot of options these days as virtually ever industry needs software.

With respect to starting a business, it sounds like you have a role where you analyze the latest tech trends and to see if your company can use them. That skill is valuable and you could do that work as a consultant for other companies etc... That is one startup path. As you gain experience and clients, some product opportunities may arise. But it might be boring though if you find your current job boring. I can tell you though that the big consultancies charge big bucks for whitepapers and research into the current market leaders etc...

If you want to continue with a software career in politics and film making, then I would advise you to work in those areas to find the market you could develop software for. Is that something you want to do? What do you find interesting about those fields? In film making there are a lot of custom software pipelines for rendering etc... For politics, I don't know. I imagine there is some push for data driven politics but is that viable.. no idea? Maybe going back to school to study public policy or politics is a way to go. Maybe join a political campaign. There seems to be a lot of activity around FB ads and data analysis etc... So some of the tools you research now could be useful in political campaigns. Keep in mind that political campaigns have limited lifespans so you might want to combine that work with consulting work.

Also, it's your network that is going to get you your next opportunity. You get a network by working with other people. What field do you want that in? This is one reason why people dislike working from home because these opportunities become more limited.