What are you doing to stay competitive?

Each year, the laundry list of expectations for developers keeps growing, but salaries aren’t keeping pace. As a full-stack developer, I’ve noticed that specializing in cloud and other disciplines, areas where it’s harder to just slap AI on top of a solution gets me more visibility on LinkedIn.

At the same time, I’m mentally exhausted and burned out from having to be a “know-it-all” across the entire stack. We’re expected to work 8–12 hours a day, stay late or come in early to meet deadlines, and then spend our personal (uncompensated) time staying up to date. It feels like I’m either working or constantly learning new tech for work. On top of that, there’s navigating office politics and dealing with ego-driven executives who think they’re always right.

What are you doing to stay sharp and sane? I’m really starting to hate this field, but I’m giving cloud a chance before throwing in the towel. Personally, I find more satisfaction in solving business problems than in memorizing LeetCode or HackerRank algorithms.

Thoughts?