Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
I started out somewhat similarly - but in my case I just wasn't very good right out of school so I started focusing more on my social life.  What changed it for me was having a job where my boss fucked up and was fired, and me being given his role.  I learned that having people count on me was the best motivator for me.  (And having people not really care that much one way or the other about what I'm doing is, to this day, an excellent DEmotivator for me.)  I eventually went on to work for a startup that grew really quickly (yes, THAT one) and was given an enormous amount of responsibility - something that, by that time, I would never have dreamed of shirking.I'm not sure how this might apply to your situation, but hope it will give you some helpful perspective.  You can take the exact same slothful person and put them in different circumstances and end up with a stellar worker - the game-changer for me for me was to be accountable, in a big, meaningful way, to someone besides just myself.  If this resonates, maybe you could volunteer your tech skills to a small nonprofit or something, and see if you feel more engaged with that work.BTW, I think it's possible to have a great home life and a great career, but THAT takes REAL work.