[fivelessminutes]

Being 'taught' or following tutorials, working on what your manager was told is important for $$$ are all the death of joy.

The excitement you hear about comes from personal discovery around things of interest to you (possibly only to you) and the feeling that you really understand something not widely known, so that you could bring it out and use it for something.

Even esoteric cases are all connected to a single underlying reality underneath, as you improve and gain understanding by your own hands pieces of what underpins everything, you will find unexpected connections even in your mundane work-stuff.

[RajT88]

In my experience, the best work-work is the side projects.

The things people did not know they needed. Or knew they needed, but could not get. Or sometimes even articulate.