You remind me of me.<p>I&#x27;m 26. I&#x27;d much rather work on my own stuff than my company stuff. I have this plan after my current job to burn up some of my savings and spend a couple of years to build something I&#x27;m excited by. I&#x27;ve been paying off student debt.<p>I think I&#x27;m okay with working a 10.30-6.30 job. The pay-check is what will grant me my freedom. Every week I work, I save 3 weeks of expenses. I&#x27;ve already enough savings to pay off my student debt two times over. After another year I&#x27;ll have enough savings to live as I do currently for 5 years. (Can double that if I don&#x27;t take the train every day &amp; eat out during office hours).<p><i>The product is important. Does it help someone? Does it make their task easier? Are the bugs in it tolerable? At all three of my big boy jobs, I&#x27;ve been so far removed from the user that I have no clue if the product helped them or not. This hurts and it hurts a lot.</i><p>You&#x27;re writing test automation. Think of your users as your colleagues. You&#x27;re not saving random people time. You&#x27;re saving time of people you go out to lunch with. All you have to do is ask &quot;Are my tests saving you time?&quot; And that&#x27;s something.