To my eye you seem to be extolling the virtues of the work. Which I still love.
replyFor sure. I love my side projects and my jobs. I love writing code and designing systems. I’m burned out on the game I must play (and be good at) to be afforded the chance to write code, design systems, and be paid.
replyIsn't that part "the industry" being what it is?
replyYeah. I just try to separate them in my mind or I’ll quit trying :) Not ready to retire just yet.
replyI just say no to take home assignments. Just no.
replyYou can think of it in terms of time commitments. I could have applied to 30 places. I don't have four hours or 16 hours or whatever, times 30 different places. Ain't nobody got time for that.
Or you can think of it in terms of, they can waste hours of my time at the price of maybe 5 minutes of their own. This leaves them less incentive to be efficient.
Net result: They're not respecting my time. They're probably not going to respect me in other ways. So, no. Just no. I'll look somewhere else.