Ask HN: Unhappy with my status quo. What can I do with my skills?
I hope I'm not annoying anyone with my post.. Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you.

I've always been pretty good at my jobs (swe tech lead currently, previously was doing something non-technical) and never gotten bad reviews.

However, I have this "issue" where I hit a wall of "OMG THIS IS BORING" or "I JUST DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE" and just feel like I want to walk away. I felt this way in my previous job, and switched to swe. Now that I've been a swe for a few years I'm feeling like I need to do something new and challenging. I've switched jobs/companies/roles over the last decade, but now I just don't feel any fulfillment where I'm at in life lol..

What should I do? Here are the issues I'm dealing with right now:

- I don't like living in cities. I'm in Bay Area right now. I find it so chaotic and grimy, and honestly I just don't care that much for area because I'm a transplant. I know that sounds like I'm being an ass, but I have no home, roots or family here. I pay so much in rent for a tiny space, and my mental health suffers unless I'm outside. When I am outside, I'm always reminded of the grimy depressing realities of city life, which also bothers me.

- I don't find my work challenging/interesting anymore. I switched jobs, teams, and roles, but I find it so boring now. For ex. I was interested in infra work because it was new to me, and now I don't find it fun at all twiddling yaml files. In the past I was interested in mobile app dev, and after building some crazy interesting features and shipping apps, I don't find it fun anymore. I've done everything from full stack to infra to mobile.

- I should have bought property 4-5 years ago when I had the chance. My friends who didn't make my mistake have been financially blessed. Some friends who bought their homes for like 400-600k were able to flip them for double, or now have 2+ homes. I have no equity in a home and at this point I don't really know what to do when it comes to buying a home.

- I've been trying my hand at entrepreneurship. That has been going well although I've not really made any tangible progress ($), but I'm definitely stressed all the time. Unfortunately none of my friends are into this, and I'm finding it really hard to make friends in such circles. I talk to people, have grown my network, but I wish I had some homeys you know?

So what should I do? I'm in my 30s now. I feel like there's not much hope for me. I feel like a pet store mouse running in his wheel non stop because there's nothing else (seemingly) to do.

Here's a few things I like and think I'm good at:

- Talking to people. I find it easy to talk to people and also enjoy it. People also seem to like talking to me, so its something where I feel like I'm in "flow" state.

- Trying new things and overcoming challenges. I've taken on maybe a dozen different projects over my career and never failed on any of them. Met every deadline, every goal, and overcame each challenge that threatened the success of the project. I work hard, and I'm a big team player and try to be a good leader.

- Fixing things. Whether its your old phone's screen, spaghetti code, or whatever. I am the guy people go to for help fixing things. I wish I could fix my situation lol.

- Teaching. I've never "taught" in a classroom like a teacher but I've taught other engineers at work. I really enjoyed it, and when people ask me questions its a good opportunity for me to review my own knowledge.

Sorry for my ramble but I really had to get this out of my head.