I need to make up for lost time dedicating 80% of my energy to my career so far. My job is great, though it suffers from many of the annoyances described in this thread. The mission is inspiring, but the organization is like a wounded beast. After a decade plus and several attempts to fix it from the inside, I’ve stopped believing it can be fixed.
I want to do less, and do it well. Pursuit of a state of grace, rather than a rolling catastrophe. I want to stop being the funnel of conflict just to get my job done because everyone is double-booked.
I want to have time for myself on weekdays, so weekends and evenings can be for my family with my full attention.
Some of these feel petty because I may be giving up great achievements for them. It would be nice to look up at the moon and say “my hardware landed there”. But I’m not sure it’s worth the personal cost.