If you're good at scripting you might be able to find a spot automating back end stuff for a sysadmin/infrastructure team. Of course, that would be in a sane job market.

I started in IT support with a general tech AA degree (with some extra programming background from a comp sci BS I dropped out of when I realized I could never code 8 hours a day for a living) and started automating the grunt work of tech support and basic access management. Caught the eye of the sysadmin/infra team and they snatched me up. I've been learning project management, infra stuff, and deep sysadmin stuff, but I mostly automate everything I possibly can surrounding our duties. Most systems and software have pretty static apis/sdks for automating with them, so I don't need to stay current with whatever language or fad practice.

Recent projects have been around cleaning up shit in our Active Directory. Easy wins like deleting security groups with no members. Automating checks like once a month checking for any emtpy that haven't changed in two weeks. Recently got rid of our on-prem exchange email servers, so I whipped up a script to take contact objects from AD, delete any non-functional ones (typo'd domains, domains that were internal to us so there was no need for a contact object), and then to recreate the valid ones in Exchange Online, and finally delete the originals from AD.

It's not super difficult scripting-wise. And a lot of greybeards could learn scripting, but a lot are content to let new blood do it, which opens opportunities.

100% agreed. I do a lot of coding as part of my job, and that is enjoyable because I don't have to worry about whatever latest programming paradigm "everyone" uses.

My code is meant to just deal with minutia in the background and never be interacted with, and it's rarely even seen by others than myself. Which is probably good, because my language of choice is perl.

I was a web developer for a few years, WordPress killed the joy I had. Every update could break something because the client wanted a website, but also wanted to use WordPress, so we had to customize the hell out of each install.

I burned out about 5 years ago, and I haven't even been able to work on my side projects.

I pretty much lived your comment. Working retail now, probably wouldn't go back...

Anyone famous for sure. Actor, musician, athlete, etc. all sound great until you remember that fame is a guaranteed route to no privacy, ever, for basically any reason.

No thanks, I'll pass.

Depending on content and delivery, it could be very rewarding, deep and prosocial! I mean, yeah, if you're flossing on TikTok past the age of 12, you need to reconsider your whole ideology and life choices, but there's room to do great things as a communicator.

This. I think I'd be a great president for example. But I'd never be able to get near it due to the politics needed. Carefully crafting a public image. Tailoring all the minutia down to even specific word choices and how you dress. I'd absolutely tell someone like an anti-vaxxer they're a fucking idiot.