It's the same for almost any profession I think. As long as you can't decide what to do with your own time, and you work from the supervision of someone else, you will always feel like that. Maybe you are better off trying to create your own business instead.
Or become a freelancer, and switch jobs every two years or so. It isn't easy either way.
But there are other jobs where you would be a better fit, so I think you probably should switch jobs, and avoid the risk of getting burned out.
There where you are currently at, it's not going to get any better, right?
I have a simpler explanation, what likely happens is that most people don't even try to do it (even though they could do so like the case here) because it's different than the social norm, which says that you should be an employee working for someone else.
I'm saying that there are other dignified ways to live that are different, you don't absolutely have to be an employee at all costs.
Independent work, running a small business, those are other alternatives to live that are equally valid.
There is not a lot of sense of community in most companies these days, its often each person for itself.
Especially in IT, people stay for a couple of years and then leave or get laid off, there is no employment for life anymore.
You can run the business from a shared workspace, it's not an issue. And even hire a couple of people to help you out since the salaries there are relatively affordable, and build your own community then.
You don't have to go to an office working for someone else, that is optional. Nothing wrong with it, it's just not the only choice.
That is highly unlikely, such a mundane job as a sysadmin compared to having your own online business.
If he liked it that much, then probably he wouldn't have started a whole side project that must have consumed evenings and weekends for years.
If he would have found professional fulfillment in his job, he would not likely have started a side project in the first place.
As he mentions in his own reply, he stays because he feels that his job defines him as a person, and he would lose his social identity if he left.
This is a surprisingly lucid reply, he can do whatever he wants and I wish him the best, but it's clear to me that he has other much better options available.
There is not much financial risk involved in his case, and it looks like he already has the skills needed. He already makes over 10 times his salary. In one year of employment, he spared the equivalent salary of 10 years.
I think people exaggerate the dive into the abyss thing and risking it all. If you have some savings, you can try to launch a business and if it doesn't work you can always go back to work for someone else.
At a given point, someone is going to give you another job as a sysadmin again. He can even work remotely and easily make more than $400 a month.
If you are not hiring other people and purchasing equipment, starting a Saas business as a sole founder has minimal financial risk involved compared to almost all other types of businesses, it's really not that risky.
I think what holds a lot of people back is the fact that they come from an employee background probably at the family level, and they see the world through the eyes of an employee.
They don't even remotely consider the several options that they actually have available.
You don't have to work for someone else and be an employee your whole life, it's not the only way. There are other choices available to you.
You can also be your own boss too and have other people working for you, or at least help you out occasionally on a part-time basis.
You can easily rent an office in a shared space if you don't want to work from home and go there a couple of times a week.
Also, you don't have to focus only on your current project if it's not your thing.
You can start something else that you would like to create while living off the income generated by your current project.
But I get it, the social expectation is that you have an office job, its what almost everyone does.
But think about this: someone at your company at a given moment had to quit their job to create the company you work on, right? Otherwise, your current day job would simply not exist.
I for one agree wholeheartedly, it makes a lot more sense to have your own company with a product or service, and use YouTube to attract customers for your business, while AdSense revenue is just the cherry on the cake.
Tim Schmoyer for example talks about this a lot, of how he was making over 10k usd a month in a channel with 10k subs or less, because he built a business model around the channel and not just based himself on addsense.
Or become a freelancer, and switch jobs every two years or so. It isn't easy either way.
But there are other jobs where you would be a better fit, so I think you probably should switch jobs, and avoid the risk of getting burned out.
There where you are currently at, it's not going to get any better, right?