Comment by wnolens
Same. I've resurrected side projects and done months of work on them overnight, getting to my true end goals. Creating software is fun. Wrangling a bunch of opinionated libraries and plumbing together systems with terrible ergonomics (i.e. webpack, maybe web development generally?) is bs work I'm glad to not have to do.
I have a slightly different take on it.
Creating software is indeed fun, but the most enjoyable aspects are the "a-ha" moments after you overcome a tricky problem, the confidence boost from creating something that works in an efficient and elegant way, and the dopamine hits associated with those events.
"AI" tools can alleviate some of the tedium of working on plumbing and repetitive tasks, but they also get rid of the dopamine hits. I get no enjoyment from running machine-generated code, having to review it, and more often than not having to troubleshoot and fix it myself.
To me, creating software is not as much about the destination, but about the journey. About the process itself. Yes, some of it is not enjoyable, but overall, there is much more I like about it than not.