As someone who grew up "a hacker teenager" and has been working in tech, writing code, etc., for ... yikes, 34 years ... let me say: some people are very fortunate that they have the self-awareness to recognize what their life's purpose is.
I'm not one of those people.
Tried therapy. Working with coaches. Experimented with drugs, both prescribed by psychopharmacologists, and ... the other kind.
Don't let this discourage you: most people don't seem to have this problem, finding their purpose.
If you truly and actually want a job solving problems and making an impact of some kind, as you say you do, then start with yourself: how could you solve this problem? What experiments might you design and execute? What questions would you seek answers to? What are your success criteria? Are there experts you could seek out for assistance?
Ultimately, you might find that you're only fooling yourself, saying you want a purpose because you've formed that opinion through life experience or some other influence, either internal or external.
It's also perfectly okay to just "be" and not have a purpose: this is probably the hardest thing for me, personally, to recognize as true and fully accept, too. But, it is.
In the end, my personal advice would be to spend some time, whether it's minutes, hours, or days, and write down a list of every single thing you like to do, no matter how trivial or whether you think it's "wrong" for you to like doing it or not. Don't focus on all the things you don't like doing, don't create a "cons" list of those things. Only focus on the "pros" and write them ALL down.
Then, once you've got a fairly extensive list, start creating groups or clusters (permutations, with reuse) of the things on the list, and look for patterns that emerge that suggest possible professions or at least things you could develop and get good at.
Then, start doing those things. The things you truly, genuinely like doing. Then, eventually, you can figure out how to monetize those activities. Almost everything in life is monetizable if you're willing to.
The challenge is finding the things you truly like doing and going out and doing them.
I'm not one of those people.
Tried therapy. Working with coaches. Experimented with drugs, both prescribed by psychopharmacologists, and ... the other kind.
Don't let this discourage you: most people don't seem to have this problem, finding their purpose.
If you truly and actually want a job solving problems and making an impact of some kind, as you say you do, then start with yourself: how could you solve this problem? What experiments might you design and execute? What questions would you seek answers to? What are your success criteria? Are there experts you could seek out for assistance?
Ultimately, you might find that you're only fooling yourself, saying you want a purpose because you've formed that opinion through life experience or some other influence, either internal or external.
It's also perfectly okay to just "be" and not have a purpose: this is probably the hardest thing for me, personally, to recognize as true and fully accept, too. But, it is.
In the end, my personal advice would be to spend some time, whether it's minutes, hours, or days, and write down a list of every single thing you like to do, no matter how trivial or whether you think it's "wrong" for you to like doing it or not. Don't focus on all the things you don't like doing, don't create a "cons" list of those things. Only focus on the "pros" and write them ALL down.
Then, once you've got a fairly extensive list, start creating groups or clusters (permutations, with reuse) of the things on the list, and look for patterns that emerge that suggest possible professions or at least things you could develop and get good at.
Then, start doing those things. The things you truly, genuinely like doing. Then, eventually, you can figure out how to monetize those activities. Almost everything in life is monetizable if you're willing to.
The challenge is finding the things you truly like doing and going out and doing them.