Enjoying the old job doesn't mean enjoying the new one
I've been building software professionally for 23 years. I love refactoring, making things simpler, and solving hard bugs. Sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night with an idea for a problem that had been nagging me all week.
In two years, I've gone from being the most stringent person on code reviews to scanning the code and letting agents do much of the reviewing. It's been disorienting and energizing. I still get into a flow state, but through work that takes a different kind of focus.
Some of the best engineers I've worked with don't want to work this way. I wish I could convince them to try it, but I understand. The job has changed, and some people who were good at the old job also enjoy the new one. Some don't.
Originally posted on X. Lightly edited for reading here.