don't think i understand what smaller companies and faang have to do with office politics that other companies are not supposed to have...

outside of that, can't say i'm confident this is great advice but i do try to follow it, for better or worse.

Chomsky says something like, "find a problem you are interested in solving, then try to solve it."

that seems to me like a pretty good way to go.

maybe go for a 4 day work week. that leaves a real weekend, at least. to me, a 4-day, at $100k+ salary, is worth a salary reduction of at least 20%, maybe more, but that's just me. many places will claim to pay the full 100%.

i always think of Monograph -- project mgmt software for architects -- i've no connection to them:

https://monograph.com/jobs

this site lists 4-day jobs, if not many of them:

https://4dayweek.io/

also, contracting can give you a nice separation of YOU from THE COMPANY.

HN has their monthly "Who's hiring?" pages.

you're prob a bit depressed, so might want to do all the things that people say to do when that happens. oddly, going back to work might be a good thing, assuming it's not horrific.