A long time ago I was a software engineer. And I am now again a software person.

In 1990, after the murder of a close friend, participating in the invasion of a small Latin American country and contracting for a national government on the edge of a war zone, I looked forward to a stable job as a software engineer. No one would shoot at me, I figured, so it must be a better gig.

It was, however, quite boring. I don't think I had real PTSD, but after a while in the sterile cube farm, I started imagining what I would do if opposing forces broke down our front door and attempted to claim our office park for the glory of Upper Kraznovistan. Apparently there are things worse than being in battle: the mindless drudgery and impossibly poor management of a telephony equipment manufacturer in the early 90s.

So I dropped my last dose of purple microdot and drove to NYC where I hung out with some old friends. I wasn't really paying attention and wound up with a part time job delivering scenic backdrops to Broadway. This was back when Times Square was somewhat crime-ridden (not peak crime, but still a lot rougher than it is today.) No one shot at me while driving my delivery van, but I did get guns pointed at me from time to time. And then the Teamsters would try to punch me for unloading the van. Turns out all the Teamsters didn't get the memo that we were supposed to unload items in the van, staging them in a designated area. Then the Teamsters pick them up and move them. I have no beef w/ Teamsters and get it they thought they were protecting their jobs against management scabs.

Was getting guns pointed at me and almost punched by Teamsters enough for me to return to the loving embrace of software? No. But I wasn't making nearly enough money to live in NYC or the surrounding areas, so I wound up as the VP of A&R for a small record label in Dallas while living in an artists' commune in what we might call "Midtown" today.

I eventually saw a print job ad in the Dallas Morning News with several lines of 8086 assembly with the comment "if you know what this does, give us a call." The siren call of working with crazy people trying to make a dent in the universe was hard to ignore and I once again returned to a career in the ontological arts and crafts.

I am now a nameless drone in sector 47 of the underground software mines. But it's totally fine, I have long since made peace with the fact I'll never put a dent in the universe. Or rather... that I had for a long time been building software with the idea that it would dent the universe. My outlook now is to focus on the software, let the universe dent itself.

This is a long way around of saying... Yes, software is largely soul eroding. The music business, which it has been observed by my betters as a cruel and shallow money trench in which pimps and thieves are rewarded is still less corrosive than software.

If you got into software just for the money, then I would say "yes, fly! be free!" But if you do personal projects on the weekend just 'cause you like it, then maybe not. Maybe just find a better environment to express your design pattern addiction.

You're always going to have to work with idiots. (Often you find that they're only really mildly less informed than you are and not real idiots.) There are always going to be people who will rejoice in thwarting your best laid plans. If the reason you don't like software is you've always worked with idiots or people who wouldn't know an agile process if it turned into a snake and bit them on the ass, even though agile processes seem to repeatedly turn into metaphorical ass-biting reptiles. If you work with people who are irritating, maybe first try to find a less-well-paying job in software first? It'll probably still pay better than a coffee industry lackey.

But you mention working with your hands so maybe it's the abstract nature of work you've had 'til now? Maybe try working on an IIoT or robotics project?

I think my advice is to consider other types of jobs with other types of teams/people, probably at smaller organizations before prostrating yourself to big coffee. Or not. I kept coming back to software, maybe you'll be happy to keep it far behind.