My problem is I'm so burnt out from the aforementioned stuff I don't have the motivation or energy for the cool stuff anymore. I feel like I need a year long sabbatical first, but reality says otherwise.
If you can afford it (time/family/financially) I would say to do it. Even if it’s only 6 months. You can learn a LOT in 6-12 months if you’re disciplined and focused. Don’t forget to build up a network in any new endeavor you take, it will save you time, give you inspiration, and help get a job later on, and maybe you can help them along the way as well.
Same here, this has been the central crisis of my working adult life for 25 years. Unfortunately it never gets better. And I've taken 6 months to 1 year off for severe burnout with physical symptoms like adrenal fatigue twice now.
My feeling is that this problem is intractable alone. We need groups working towards liberation, and societal change to support healthy work/life balance.
What that looks like in practice is that wealthy people, especially those who won the internet lottery, should start giving something back. At the most basic level, that's paying one's taxes. Beyond that, they should start setting aside ego-based goals and start accepting requests outside of their attention so that the most pressing problems facing humanity can finally get solved.
Give a billionaire $1 billion and a year later they'll turn it into $2 billion. Give one of us $1 billion and a year later a form of cancer will be cured. That's why they have the money and we don't, and why it takes so long for things to get better, if they ever do.
Make that day today! I’ve realised this same problem too, sure there’s some beauty in an ultra tight gluing of logic … but there’s a vast unexplored sea of programming beauty waiting to be discovered. I realised this over the weekend, so I’m diving into graphics programming.