I thought training in physics made leetcode questions easy for me.

I got a physics PhD, bombed out of a postdoc in 1999. Since then I've worked in the software business, sometimes local sometimes remote, sometimes at the local university, sometimes with startups, consulting shops and medium sized businesses.

I settled where I did because my wife and I had a chance to buy a really great farm where my wife teaches people to ride horses. I started out doing a lot of activism and also consulting work which I got into because I wrote a few book chapters that got attention. My first job search was terribly difficult and involved finding an opportunity and working the politics to get a position created, I lost that job in five years because of internal politics and a financial/accounting/management crisis inside my Uni.

After that bounced around between many employers doing many things, had a long stint of trying to realize my own vision which didn't turn out but means I don't have any of the regrets I would have had if I hadn't tried so hard. Got back in at a different unit of my Uni where I work doing software dev now. For all of those adventures I think my LinkedIn profile is a lot more interesting than most people's

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-houle-a18809320/

Depression and lack of motivation is a signal. It means you're on a path which is not making you feel fulfilled.

As a rando on the internet, your idea to take an old fashioned working class job while you find small gigs or side projects in an area of your interest seems better than getting stuck in a soul-crushing corporate job. That way at least you maintain your sense of agency, and having a sense of agency makes at least me feel more fulfilled.