When people say "passion", they don't mean churning out derivative charts of the same "correct" ranges of muzak with no inner emotion or no inner story. That's not passion, and I'm pretty sure your friends who do this would agree that this is not theirs either. Instead, they'd probably point to more personal work to show you what they are actually passionate about.
What makes art beautiful isn't plucking the strings or pressing piano keys. It is the expression of ideas, a communicative art.
The artists who do this are not evil, and must make a living. I would not call them or define them as "fake". There is absolutely fake work and fake output, though.
I fondly remember a flash game that involved small particles with their own unique behavior. Each particle could collide, react, transform, or destroy other particle material. I can't remember the name of the website or game, but emergent gameplay is always such a joy to toy around with.
"Powder Game"[1] is the Flash game off the top of my head that fits your description. If you're looking for a more fleshed out version with many times more elements/interactions, check out "The Powder Toy"[2]!
Definitely a gateway drug to the sandbox/simulation genre for me (Minecraft, Rimworld, Factorio).
Countless hours spent blowing up pixel cities, tinkering with the particle interactions, trying to make a sustainable nuclear reactor... fun times indeed.
And for anyone still considering SRE: when interviewing, ask how incentives/bonuses/promotions work for software engineers and how does that compare to SREs. A lot of promotable activities for SWE (shipping new things constantly) have negative value for an SRE role, since continually changing infrastructure ensures on-call never develops mastery of those systems.
Back to the OP, I raise a glass to your sabbatical. Most SREs end up needing a healing period from repetitive stress injury (AKA burnout).
If I may offer some completely unsolicited advice, don't put too much pressure on yourself in the next few months. People who gravitate towards SRE work tend to thrive under short-term ambiguity and emergency/urgency. However, long/medium term ambiguity without a clear productive goal can quickly feel like a crisis. OP mentions this in closing, so I'm rooting for them to rest and "sit still" for a bit.
Hmm, People from companies in different stages post here. It's a pretty diverse mix from small to large companies.
The real issue is people, visiting one of these pages, seeing all the posts and interrupting users having valid interactions with dull-witted questions like "what makes you think ....".
What makes you think you can speak for all posters on HN? Are you linkedin?
What makes art beautiful isn't plucking the strings or pressing piano keys. It is the expression of ideas, a communicative art.
The artists who do this are not evil, and must make a living. I would not call them or define them as "fake". There is absolutely fake work and fake output, though.