Not seriously. I like coding. But when I don't get to do it . . . I go a little nuts and have had thoughts about just getting out. This is usually related to poor working environment fit for my personality and personal goals. I think it is common, particular for corporate devs, to struggle with these types of feelings.
I have, by accident and plan (lack of knowing the effects), wound up in a similar place to what you describe. More directly, I have developed a marketable, but big corporate-focused skill set (RDBMS, Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB2 . . . ).
This is OK for now, it works for my geographic region, my family, and so far has been low-risk from the "I have a well paying job" perspective, but is completely unsatisfying career-wise from a challenging growth perspective. I've recently turned down one much higher-paying job than I have now and am struggling with a similar decision at this point for another job. My main fear is that the new offer represents "more of the same" and this website, PG's essays, and a number of other sources have poisoned me forever against living in my safe corporate cube in happiness.
Not that this will help how you feel much, but having really good domain knowledge probably has the effect of making you much more valuable than just a "mediocre programmer." Think about those guys that got YC funding, they were teaching themselves to program to implement their idea (can't remember the group, Jessica mentioned them in a Mixergy interview). It's not like they were super-hackers at that point or anything.
If I had your flexibility to quit and move, I'd try to hook up with one of the startups that float around this forum. I read a number of comments that make me think many of them are small with smart people who want hackers looking to push themselves hard and build stuff in a fun way. Could be fun, sounds like you don't need to make much in the way of money, maybe you can just sleep on the floor at the apt office.
I have, by accident and plan (lack of knowing the effects), wound up in a similar place to what you describe. More directly, I have developed a marketable, but big corporate-focused skill set (RDBMS, Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB2 . . . ).
This is OK for now, it works for my geographic region, my family, and so far has been low-risk from the "I have a well paying job" perspective, but is completely unsatisfying career-wise from a challenging growth perspective. I've recently turned down one much higher-paying job than I have now and am struggling with a similar decision at this point for another job. My main fear is that the new offer represents "more of the same" and this website, PG's essays, and a number of other sources have poisoned me forever against living in my safe corporate cube in happiness.
Not that this will help how you feel much, but having really good domain knowledge probably has the effect of making you much more valuable than just a "mediocre programmer." Think about those guys that got YC funding, they were teaching themselves to program to implement their idea (can't remember the group, Jessica mentioned them in a Mixergy interview). It's not like they were super-hackers at that point or anything.
If I had your flexibility to quit and move, I'd try to hook up with one of the startups that float around this forum. I read a number of comments that make me think many of them are small with smart people who want hackers looking to push themselves hard and build stuff in a fun way. Could be fun, sounds like you don't need to make much in the way of money, maybe you can just sleep on the floor at the apt office.