[busterarm]

> This is exactly what high paid SWE work is these days. You can have less collaboration by moving to infra, but it'll still be the norm.

As someone who made the switch to infra, don't do it. The same problems mentioned before will become uncontrollable roadblocks to you getting real work done and you'll have zero power to do anything about it.

You do get to provide enormous amounts of value but typically only when the stars align.

Unfortunately the only real way to make that difference is in software team management and then say goodbye to contributing code.

[badpun]

I believe there are still individual coders who make a real difference. It's vanishingly rare in server-side coding, but happens more often in niche fields such as game engines, compression.

[busterarm]

I agree, but if you're in such specializations you likely don't have these complaints to begin with :D