[wkat4242]

Maybe your path in life is just taking you elsewhere? It's not a big deal. I used to like programming too but it became too formal with all the frameworks like agile and scrum. I'm not a team player so having all that collaboration is really annoying. I just need a clear task with defined in/outs that I can bite into and don't want to deal with everyone else.

Also it could be that the lead role is just not your thing. But it can be difficult to change from a financial perspective. I'm also an architect and I'm not as efficient at it as when I was in more hands-on roles. Unfortunately our new director decided to split the technical work out from architecture to a new operations team and I don't want to take a pay cut because that work is less valued.

So I'm staying for now but looking around for something better.