I'm assuming from this Q you might be early stage in your career? Its definitely hard nowadays. 30 yrs ago, as well as C++ I learned various Unix flavours - HP-UX, Solaris then Linux. Development on those seemed to be interesting projects and interesting people. Then I got interested in open source. I found that clinging to *nix, open source and tech used by academia was a way to have a long-lasting career, while other people doing e:g Microsoft tech back in the day or later on javascript frameworks found they suffered from vendor lock-in and/or skills with a short shelf life. So to me there was a clear career strategy, pick carefully what tech you spend the time learning, and you'll be fine. Whereas now, what are you meant to do? The future is so unpredictable. It seems every skill is now having a short shelf life. AI can do your job as it was. So you need to invest in and use AI. But that is constantly changing. What is lacking is a clear path to invest effort in. I don't envy people starting out today. Struggling with motivation when its unclear what to learn seems natural. Sorry for the pessimistic answer, maybe other people can helpfully argue against this ;)