What people dream about doesn't really mean anything. They don't actually live and work at google, as a software engineer. They just see some kind of marketing version of "a day in the life of a software engineer at google". It has nothing to do with reality.
Every programmer I met is depressed, hates computers, and spends all of their day just pretending to work because they burned out in the first month of programming. Programming isn't a real job for actual humans. We can't do it. The market just demands it.
That doesn't even make sense. Software engineering is using software to solve problems. How hard software engineering is depends entirely on the problem you are trying to solve.
>Work is just work and unless you're curing cancer, you shouldn't put any effort into making some billionaires richer.
The same thing applies at small software companies. I find there are a bunch of family members and friends in the managerial positions who barely even turn up to work, and have no clue about programming or the work involved in the products that are making them their money.
>Very few people in the world have this level of freedom.
If you were honest with yourself, this is probably just coping with making a decision or living a life you know is wrong. People seem to have made a sport of dreaming up what life is like for people in various "third world countries".
Anyway, my opinion for all programmers is treat everything like a war. If you are working at a small company, you should start duplicating their products at home in preparation of using your inside knowledge to launch a competitor. If you are working at a large company, you can do the same on a smaller project. You can also start thinking about how to invest the money you make in getting out of there from day 1.
Every programmer I met is depressed, hates computers, and spends all of their day just pretending to work because they burned out in the first month of programming. Programming isn't a real job for actual humans. We can't do it. The market just demands it.