[Recurecur]

This is a very narrow view. I've probably practiced software development longer than almost anyone on this thread - right at 40 years. I'm still a practicing software engineer, doing "enterprisey" software development in Java. Still interesting, lots of challenges, and yes, lots of complexity.

That said, I've done a lot of other things over my career, and one reason it's stayed interesting is the variety. If I wanted a change right now I'd probably look at small embedded systems work.

With all the AI, IOT, scientific, real time control, and robotics software being developed these days, I think there are a lot of interesting directions available!

I'll add a shameless plug for Julia, which I think could become a major general purpose programming language, and which makes for some enjoyable development!

(On the "best use of one's body", I have some sympathy there, but "balance in all things". Or just up your rates and work 32 hour weeks. heh)