I&#x27;m facing this. I think it&#x27;s a kind of trauma. I&#x27;ve dealt with death march projects too often, often becoming the &#x27;hero&#x27; who has to bail out everyone&#x27;s butts. At three points in my life, I&#x27;ve worked about 100 hours straight to rescue a project.<p>I&#x27;m recovering. I tried coding something I like, but that didn&#x27;t help. I tried vacations and sleeping it off. I tried binging on games.<p>What works for me is a fan base. It&#x27;s great to know your work has impact on people. It&#x27;s nice to get &quot;this is awesome!!&quot; feedback, and better yet cash donations.<p>I think the team itself has very little to do with it. There are awful teams, but in general, you can still get the same feeling from a superb team and great people.<p>Productive engineers = happy engineers.<p>Maybe try a simple project that you can feel the results. Especially if it can net you positive feedback.