[swatcoder]

It doesn’t feel like a vague request so much as one whose answer is very personal.

You could maybe characterize what you’re saying as that you’re feeling directionless in your career. You like it, but it feels mature and like you’ve reached a summit. You’re craving a new peak to try climbing but can’t find one that’s appealing.

Maybe somebody will throw out an idea here that will inspire you directly, but my sense is that you may need to shake up how you’re looking at the possibilities. You’re thinking in terms of languages and styles and (rightly, for where you are professionally) feel like those are trivial additions to your repertoire rather than peaks to climb.

So maybe you need to think in some other terms. What do you want to be doing professionally at Year 30? What were some things that inspired you at Year 1 or Year 5 that circumstances pulled you away from — can you revisit those? etc

The second of those questions is on my mind because I felt similar to you last year and was coaxed into refocusing on a fun specialty that my career had long ago pulled me away from. It’s a rich and interesting field and tends to draw in storied people with personalities I enjoy, so it’s been really rewarding to dive back into it whole-heartedly. I feel refreshed in a way I hadn’t expected.

But you might be moved by a different question entirely; my emphasis here is just on maybe asking yourself some different questions than you have been.

[cgopalan]

Thanks for the valuable insight! Glad that you could find a rewarding project! Hoping to find something like that myself, at least temporarily, before I look for the next thing :)