[was_hellbanned]

Awhile back I started working on some Project Euler problems and found that some of my passion for programming returned. Also, pursuing some projects of great personal interest to me helped, but the repetitive annoyances (rabbit hole/yak shaving issues, horrible API documentation and frustrating APIs, etc.) still got to me eventually. Ultimately, I began to realize that what made me happy with my work in the past was having good people around me, regardless of whatever death-march project I was on.

Show me a passionate, mature software developer and I'll show you someone with a good social work environment.

Oh, and never underestimate the power of a real vacation. I'm talking two weeks swimming and reading (non-tech stuff) on a beach somewhere, never fretting about your real-life and tech problems. Really, how many of us ever experience such relief?