This is very good to hear. I've been thinking for awhile now that AI tools need some sort of cryptographic signature in their content to identify the source. This will help protect people in the event of fake images or videos that could be compromising to them, particularly as these tools become more powerful. I guess the next question is how will attackers attempt to fake the watermark.
I just wish that something similar could be done with text content.
Thank you for this. I guess to add something, I moved to a different city to take this job. I don't have friends or family where I live. I do have one friend at work. He works on the front-end team and we meet outside of work sometimes for lunch. So I'm sure the isolation wouldn't be as bad if I had more of a social group outside of work. But I appreciate you mentioning that it's not that uncommon for devs to feel alone and isolated.
I ran out of space at the end, but the last paragraph was: "Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'm really just looking for guidance. I hope some of the more experienced programmers might be able to shed some light on this situation in ways that aren't clear to me right now."
EDIT
There was one other paragraph I deleted due to space limitations. On the topic of struggling with being completely alone at my job for the large majority of my workweek:
"I'm considering taking my back-end skills and re-training to learn cloud. I think this could (possibly) put me in a position where I can build on my coding skills while also working with other people throughout the day, i.e. clients, other IT people, developers, and so on."
It sounds like the crux of your question is, "How do I work less and still support my family?" I've not read the type of books you described. I also don't work 4 hours a week. I work a 9-5 with a 1 hour lunch, 5 days a week, building APIs for a small-to-medium sized credit union. So although I don't have an answer to your question, I do have some thoughts to share.
I've slowly become comfortable with the idea that as a backend web developer, I'm really just one of many. So no wonder I haven't landed that cushy remote job yet. There are many others who can do what I do, and at my current career level, most have more experience than I do. (Of course that will change over time).
So how do I get the dream job that I want? Obviously I can't get there by following this trajectory. I've been telling myself that I need to stand out from the crowd in some substantial way. The only way I can imagine doing that is to develop a niche skillset that is more sought after than the one I currently have. A lot of people can build APIs. So I need to make myself more valuable to bigger companies if I'm going to ever get the sweet remote position that I dream of having.
On an unrelated note, one of my best friends has almost the exact job you described. He's not a software engineer. He works in quality assurance, helping companies self-audit themselves so they're prepared if the FDA shows up to audit them. He makes over 6 figures, works from home for 2-3 hours in the morning. As long as he's available to answer emails and teams messages, he does whatever he wants on most days. Anytime I've asked him for his advice, he always tells me that he just "followed the money."
One more thought. I think as developers we get obsessed with building our technical skills. When in the longterm I think it's the people skills that matter. Also, there are a lot of jobs in tech and for big companies that don't involve traditional software development. Maybe the solution is to look elsewhere for opportunities. I'm saying this to myself as much as I am to you.
>"I'd love to see a world where more companies self-host the wiki for their game/TV show/etc, especially given the relatively low cost of deploying and hosting..."
I think the next best thing is when a company hosts their own forums where the community and in some cases the devs are active in answering questions. As long as forums are well-moderated then they naturally evolve into an knowledge base. X3:Terran Conflict comes to mind, along with IL-2 Sturmovik, which has good official forums and some excellent unofficial forums.
I recall reading that certain aircraft manufacturers do offer more robust security features if the airlines are willing to pay for them. I don't have a link or source handy, but it's entirely possible that these features have been discussed, but through the lens of how much more would it cost to implement them.