In case you want to go for something aimed at competitive programming have a look at the "Competitive Programmer’s Handbook"
https://cses.fi/book/book.pdf
I read a Wikipedia article about the concept of bad faith as described by Sartre. Bad faith([1]) comes close to how I feel and wanted to share it in case anyone else is interested.
>It seems like you've already decided it's possible to find life "meaning" at work.
I have decided that the search for meaning at work is meaningful on its own even if I end up never finding a meaningful job. This is because I believe while searching for meaning in work I would have to try out new type of jobs through which I would discover more of me in general. But from a practical point of view I indeed believe that a person that is actively searching for a meaningful job will find it.
>A few years later, we caught up for a beer. He quit a few months after I did and got a job with the local government maintaining a wetland area near a large city. He was getting paid 65K per year and absolutely loved the work more than anything. He loved the fact he was actively saving something everyday and wasn't in an office.
Other than the above friend, I know exactly zero other people IRL that claim to have get significant "meaning" from work. Including myself.
>You mentioned your lack of interest in PhD program despite already 1.5 years into it. You might want to dig deeper into yourself to understand why that is the case. When you say meaningful, do you mean something that will change the world.
Its because I believe I learn more interesting things than I would in a corporate job. Additionally I haven't been able to find a job that I find more interesting then my current one, although I am actively searching and interviewing. I believe that I search (heavily) based on my cv though, without going into new waters.
>If you love doing something but you don't get recognized for it, would that bother you?
No, I don't think it would.
>If you did get recognised for a work which you were not passionate about. Would you still find meaning in it?
I believe this would depend on factors such as who is benefited by my work, does my job contribute in solving a problem that I believe is important etc.. In general I believe recognition is not so important to me.
>After I completed by engineering, I started a company with my friends - thinking this will be meaningful experience. And it was in many ways. It helped me understand myself and the world better. But, it took many years to figure out exactly what I wanted to do and where my heart lies. Most people don't take that journey.
So, if you want to find meaningful work, you need to start on the self exploration journey. Hope that was useful.
That makes sense! Thanks for sharing this! What do you think contributed the most in finding what you wanted to do?
>There is another possible path, and it goes something like: understand that the vast majority of people do not have jobs that they like, the day job is to pay the bills.
From personal experience it seems to me that the majority of people do not enjoy their jobs and at the same time have given up on finding meaningful job. Another way of interpreting what you said could be to notice how people that have given up on finding meaning in their jobs are left with a job that primarily is there to pay the bills.
>(optionally) optimise your day job & savings rate towards saving and investing enough so you can afford to spend more time on meaningful activities, and less (or no) time on the day job to generate income. If you save enough that you don't have to work for 25 years, then if you invest that in the stock market it may produce a real return of 4% each year- which on average covers your expenses.
Then maybe you have the rest of your life to look for more meaningful activities, and you also have the option of doing activities that don't generate any cashflow.
To me this imposes the risk of wasting your life in order to not work in your 50s and since we don't live twice that risk feels to big.