@reevO2.6kHz do you regret working on computers? My whole early life I was sure I would end up being a software / web designer, and I was as a freelancer for years, but now I can't stand working on computers.
I don't want to be around them anymore but still use my desktop randomly. I was also addicted to gaming about 8-12 years ago.
I have bad posture and back pains already from 2 decades of computer chair posture
Do I regret it now that technology has essentially destroyed human-to-human relations throughout the world? Absolutely, and if it were possible, I'd travel back in time to prevent the internet evolving past what it was in 2000.
Do I regret it because of the Carpal Tunnel, Shoulder, Neck, Elbow, Leg pain & more? Maybe... but there's exercise, smart eating & drugs for that.
Do I regret it because once you're known as "one of those IT guys, he can help," I want to run to a different hemisphere. Outside of my professional life, I am pretty firm on my stance of not helping friends or family with their computer 'issues,' since it's ALWAYS something anyone with common sense would have not gotten themselves into, and when you fix it and it inevitably 'breaks' again, along with something else --- it's all YOUR fault! You messed with my settings!
Overall though, I don't regret it. The pay is nice, I can automate nearly all of my job(and everyone else's), the boomers don't understand the tech, the zoomers think they understand the tech but they're just really good at navigating well desgined UIs/UXs and were taught from textbooks to memorize how these systems actually work. So little to no practical hands-on experience from them either. Of course I'm part of the forgotten generation, I think it's called X(like... the band), everyone ignores us, which is great, and at least I get to be the "ask him he'd know" tech guy regardless of my in-office title(s).
Overall I'd say 22 years in professional IT (+6 years as a hobby) gets a rating of 7/10 from me. It's all downhill from here though. AI, Automation, Recession, Non-Living Wages, CoL Increasing, Pay not counting for inflation, errrrryone "is in STEM, bro," etc., etc. The market is shrinking and for every 30 candidates, 1 might actually be possibly qualified for the position, and he'll be gone within 2 years as is the nature of the industry. The other 29 are part of the oversatured CS/CompTIA/MCSE/etc grads that have knowledge a mile wide and a centimeter deep and couldn't intuitively resolve a technical issue if their life depended on it.
What I'm trying to say to any young'ns reading this: Don't get into any aspect of IT. It's already too late, imagine it in a decade. Figure something else out. Make soap or some shit.