[mattm]

You're right that the tools will not help you enjoy programming more. If you really feel that you'd still like to do programming because it's possible that you can enjoy it, it could be that you are always trying to recreate that initial experience when you started.

It's like the beginning of a relationship. At the beginning everything is hot and steamy but then it levels off to an equilibrium. If you keep wanting a long term relationship to be the same as it was at the beginning, well, that's an unrealistic expectation. And unrealistic expectations just lead to disappointment. It's the same with programming. It's just not going to be the same as it was at the beginning. Some people overcome this by jumping from relationship to relationship (project to project) but at some point that may not fulfill you either and you want to invest in a long-term relationship but don't know where to go.

I've put together a course that helps address this issue for programmers and gets us thinking about our work from the inside rather than from the outside as I have dealt with the same issues. It's at https://www.programmingspiritually.com

I'm going to change the model so that it's freemium (do it for free and if you got value then pay at the end). But I don't have time till next week. If you're interested, send me an email and I'll let you know when it's available.