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I had a fairly traumatic life event happen recently. It's made me think about whether I'm really leading the life I want to. I fill my life with lots of fun and educational media, and I value learning new skills a lot. I play several instruments and have several other hobbies, and I love getting better at these things. I'm a very successful software engineer at a big big tech company, building very niche systems, striving for operational efficiency and delivery of small new features.
But it almost feels like I'm filling my life with valueless hobbies, and wasting my time. These fill my time and keep me busy and somewhat happy, but they don't really make the world a better place or bring me closer to the people I love.
I wonder if I should be doing something greater with my life, to try to make the world actively better, instead of just existing in it. There must be something I can do. I feel like I worked so hard to become an engineer in big tech, and my skill set includes management skills, design and coding skills, and business skills. I'd like to leverage those skills in some way. How did one leverage skills such as these to try to do something that is more impactful? The sheer magnitude of the question paralyzes me, and I never end up making progress on it
These sort of traumatic life examination-prompting events happen every few years, and I usually just eventually go back to existing and doing what I'm doing. I don't know if that is if either me getting over the trauma which allows me to go back to normal, or if it is me chickening out from a greater calling, choosing a selfish comfortable and non impactful life over trying to actually make the world better. I have had also many traumatic (in a different way) events in the past that have ended up making me scared about my ability to maintain my life as is, so striking out on something new (especially if I don't even know what it is) is extra terrifying to me.
Do you have a wife, or children?
If you want to do something good for the world, passing on your successful software engineer genes would be right at the top of the list. If you want something meaningful, having kids will probably be the most meaningful thing you will ever do. If you're worried about living a selfish life, bringing new life into the world is pretty selfless.
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I always find myself confused by people who want to do something with their life, make a difference and so on. Isn't unabashed hedonism good enough? (This is at least 50% a joke, I think)
Eh, well, at least I help people in my day job (and I do genuinely enjoy helping people, otherwise I'd have taken something that pays better), so when it comes to hobbies or what I do to afford my rather minimal demands in life, I couldn't care less if they're productive or not.
If you're so unhappy with how things are, I'm sure there must be some kind of NGO or charity that could use you, assuming you can stomach the paycut yourself.
But I'd wager it's more that you've been shaken out of your comfortable life by whatever weighs so heavily on your mind, and you're reflexively looking to change something just to feel better about yourself. But don't ask me, I'm not a psychiatrist (yet) and I've had several drinks.
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