I'm not someone who will claim the free market solves everything. But in my experience, a programming career gives programmers a wonderfully diverse labor marketplace. You can pretty much make your career what you want it to be.<p>Mine involved doing zero unpaid overtime ever (or no more than say 30-60 minutes here and there). Mine involved doing zero training for puzzle-based tests. Mine involved being paid above average salary compared to many others where I live. And mine involved only enjoyable, hobbyist practice of my craft in my spare time. When I landed in jobs that didn't suit me well, I moved to a different job.<p>There may have been a rogue weekend where I got a little work in, or a couple of nights where I was running through tutorials in a language or framework that work needed, so it wasn't primarily my curiosity getting me to try it out. But by and large, I've been paid handsomely for being efficient, adding efficiency to organizations, and I've learned what I needed to on the job while enjoying what I do.<p>Personally, I couldn't ask for me, though others certainly can and do expect more from their career and from themselves. If you want to be richer than me, you couldn't live where I do (or you'd have to be more attractive to remote-first employers that also pay higher salaries.) So the work you put in tends to reward you, though perhaps the Pareto Principle applies.<p>Now, I can attribute some of my satisfaction in this line of work with timing - getting into web application development in at the turn of the century meant that demand exceeded supply and it was an employee's market. But more so, I think, can be attributed to my flexibility, adaptability, willingness to accept change and move (change jobs) to where I could get what I wanted from my career.<p>Perhaps where you live and when you live, software cannot give you the career you desire. If that's the case, choose what to change. You cannot change the point in time we are in, but there are certainly software fields that are growing and paying well, so maybe location has to change, or you must seek out more desirable remote positions and make yourself a fit for them. If that isn't what you're willing to do, then perhaps the field is wrong for you, and you must make a bigger change.