Ask HN: I achieved my dream of being a self-taught dev. I hate it. Now what?
Hey HN. I'm in a little pickle regarding my career and life choices and I'm not too sure what to do. I'd like to get some advice or perspective from others here. During my teenage years I worked fast-food/retail, with a bit of odd manual labor mixed in here and there. Then I joined the military and worked a physically demanding job while active duty. I did that for 4 years, all the while teaching myself to code with the primary motivation of being able to attain a lucrative job and build a respectable career for myself down the road. Upon separating from the military, I attained said job.

At first, I was thrilled. I do enjoy coding to an extent, and thought that this was my "big break". But after doing it for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, I've come to realize that I don't enjoy it all that much after all. It was an escape after a hard days work. It was a way for me to relax. But sitting down, alone, in front of a computer screen all day every day is slowly driving me mad. My mental health is slowly getting worse and I've come to realize that I need some amount of human interaction and, more importantly, some amount of movement and physical activity. I don't believe it's my company, coworkers, or manager that makes me dislike my work. The problems I solve are interesting, my manager is truly incredible, and my coworker are all kind, encouraging, and helpful. It's simply the nature of the job, I'm certain I'd feel similar with almost any desk job where I toil in front of a screen day in and day out. I just didn't realize it as I'd never really had a truly white collar job prior. I also should note that I don't try to derive meaning or fulfillment solely from my employment. I go to the gym, I train MMA, I even dabble in stand-up comedy (though public speaking certainly is not my forte). All that to say, I don't expect to be 100% fulfilled from any job, but I just can't handle the 40+ hours a week of complete inactivity and nearly complete isolation.

I have the GI Bill, which grants me 4 free years of tuition at any public university in the country. I'm strongly considering quitting and using it. The only thing holding me back is that I have no idea whatsoever what I could do that I actually would enjoy and would meet my physical and social needs without overloading them. Too much socialization or physical activity for me is almost as bad as none whatsoever. I've come to terms with the fact that I'll almost certainly have to take a pay cut, and that's okay. I'm willing to earn less in exchange for my mental health, but only to a point. The ratio of income lost to happiness gained should be at least roughly equal.

I'm blessed to have the opportunity, time, and means to drastically alter my career path in my early-mid 20's but at the same time I'm overwhelmed with options. And I fear choosing the wrong one as I don't want to be in this same position 4 years from now.

I've tried introspecting and narrowing down my options based on my interests, but I can't think of a single career I'd like to actually make out of my interests. Working out and MMA isn't something I would want to make a career out of as it's just a way to blow off steam, and I don't have the desire to do stand-up comedy professionally. The only other interest I've had over the past ~5 years has been programming. Which I do enjoy, just not enough. Aptitude isn't a concern. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I'm certain that I could perform well doing whatever I decide, so long as the interest is there. I'm hoping that just maybe there's some perfect career path out there that I just haven't heard of or thought about yet.

After that novella, I open the floor to you. What are some good options for me to consider? What would you do if you were in my situation? Is there anything else I haven't thought of?

Thanks if you've taken the time to read this, doubly so if you then take the time to write a response. I look forward to hearing from all of you.