Ask HN: How to stop dreaming about working in other fields?

Because that's often the truth. Software pays well and offers a pretty good lifestyle. Doing things that are "more fun" means less money and less work-life balance. Or you can just take up a stimulating hobby or work on a side project.

I could write at length about it but it is kind of personal. I'll just say, I used to help design "cool shit". Huge oil refinery units made of steel full of high pressure poisonous and explosive gasses. Lots of responsibility, I loved that part of it. Now I do web dev. No responsibility (relatively speaking). But I fucking love it. I'm having more fun as a SWE than I ever did as a ChemE. The tight feedback cycle and flow state you can get into doing test driven development is like nothing else, it is truly amazing. I look forward to work, and when I go home I'm already thinking about what I'm going to work on tomorrow morning. Admittedly, I did also do that at points as a ChemE.

Maybe you just need to get out of sales and start building shit full time again?

Or fuck it dude, maybe doing traditional engineering would be cool too. If you've got some money in the bank and don't have a family then just fucking go for it, why not?

One thing you might do: start a gratitude practice. Every morning, journal and write out three things you are grateful for. That has really helped me not feel so frantic about making changes to my life, even if they're changes that need to be made.

I also did a 3 month, 1 day/week internship at a sustainability consulting company in an area I was interested in. I learned a lot about bees and also that there was very little money in sustainability consulting. That led me to treat the interest as a hobby rather than a potential career. If you can swing this and keep your current job, highly recommend.