Amazon is the literal expression of pied piper consumption. You know what would mess with Amazons dominance? Consumers having critical thinking skills enough to make long term decisions. Everyone here knows what the game is, which is kind of disgusting/amusing/predictable. Carry on :) Particularly you, Bezo/Freud/Bernays, you lovable sociopaths. Here for the comedy not for the crowd.
Someone making $100k should easily be able to save $1k a month wherever they are living in the world and put it into a fund making at least 15% a year.
Here's some mind blowing advice - stop buying useless ornaments that do nothing to elevate you or enhance your life in meaningful ways. People have been hoodwinked into buying junk and stand there teary eyed wondering how it all happened and why they're so empty inside. How they went so far but did so little.
This years black friday/cyber monday sales were extraordinary - because people are idiots.
It's not a mystery. Make conscious choices in your life and you won't be a victim. Someone making 6 figures is the last person anyone should feel sad for.
The biggest red flag about what you're saying is that it implies work done by the team (junior or not) isn't tied to specific goals our outcomes for the organization.
Having work sit in branches un-merged for an indeterminate amount of time is terrible management and a terrible work culture. Your org sounds rudderless.
I'd suggest revisiting your roadmap and sanity checking with your stake holders that the work devs are doing is actually meaningful, and regularly calibrating amongst yourselves with agile ceremonies such as backlog grooming, sprint planning, daily checkins, retrospectives and internal demos/UAT.
Even if you don't follow an agile process, regular (ego free) retrospectives with your team mates is the most beneficial of all ceremonies.
I'm not calling out junior devs here on purpose, it seems like an organizational culture problem tbh, and your senior devs are not acting very senior by failing to mentor and assist younger team members ;)
Topical, I watched a movie last night that covers a lot of the things you mentioned - Lost City Of Z http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1212428 it didn't get great ratings but was good, cinematic and thoughtful imho
I don't do side projects or open source any more and run some bots for cryptocurrency trading instead. The bots continue to grow their positions and has been several times more lucrative than anything else I've tried to monetize at a fraction of the effort
A lot of the points touched on in the original article and this thread are conducive to deeper, creative and more meaningful work in general. You should say no to meaningless distractions. I just finished reading this book about it, so, good timing... https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted-...
I do, it turned from being a niche for creatives into a porn site. I was following some people in an attempt to curate the content but knew I was only a click away from some NSFW imagery from whatever recommendation algo was implemented, so it stopped being a destination. Then Tumblr came along where there was more control and a better quality community so I made that my inspiration feed instead.
I use it to look up things now and then as the result of a google search but generally its a distraction and I'm not there to find validation so I don't even have a login. I don't think this has anything to do with age though. Maybe older people just have less enthusiasm for filling out surveys.
I volunteer at the local park with events, gardening, maintenance and cleanup and generally try to be useful. I'm there 3 times a day walking my dogs anyway so its pretty much my back yard and a good way to show my appreciation for it because it really changed my experience of New York for the better.
The best part is I've had to deal with a lot of people from all walks of life, especially during large events and it's helped me become a much better and present communicator. I've never had a knack for small-talk but this has really changed since forcing myself into situations where I have to get out from behind my computer, chat with people and build a rapport with the community. This has translated into professional benefits too and I've become much more comfortable giving presentations and speaking to audiences - something I couldn't have imagined a couple of years ago!
I'm also part of a dog rescue organization and am regularly trying to find forever homes for abused, neglected or death-row dogs. Animals don't have a voice of their own and i'm very particular about placement so its been fulfilling to know these doggos have ended up in a better situation after often cruel starts by human hands.