I have had the same problem. I studied some leetcode, but didn't feel motivated and never got very good at. Good enough to get an okay job, but nothing at a top-paying company. So you might want to take the approach that you don't need to get a job that requires a huge amount of of leetcode study; focus on networking or whatever.
If you feel you have no choice, though, I wonder if you could try to gather together a group of people who are in a similar situation, in order to do practice sessions. Each person could take turns explaining a leetcode problem on a whiteboard. It would give you interview practice, help you make networking connections, and hopefully make the task less boring and introduce an aspect of accountability. I think you'd have to be careful to make sure that the people involved were friendly and helpful, not make it about one-upmanship. Anyway, that is what I'd do today, if I had the problem that I needed to pass leetcode tests.
Actually, there is. You have to search for "pressure". For example, "Other Tests: There are some other things that are important to know as well. You must know your blood pressure".
> First time in my life I "chose myself" and quit a job instead of staying in something that was very negatively affecting my mental health
I'm responding because I also quit a job years ago to preserve my mental health, so your post resonates with me. When I quit, I was becoming increasingly depressed. I did not have a new job lined up. I did have several years of $$ runway. I also considered it an option to move to a cheaper COL area overseas, if needed, to keep afloat.
Since then, I've mostly taken gig work to provide for myself (freelance/consulting software development - mostly mobile app development, but also web app stuff).
I don't know how typical your experience was for "state work". If I were you, I might try to leverage my previous experience into a new state job, which might turn out better.
My answers to your bullet points aren't really relevant, since I left my last FT job over 10 years ago. But I'll give them anyway.
Locating: In one case, I got a referral from a friend who had interviewed with the company and didn't like the place (he was right, I was more desperate and took the offer). In all other cases, I found the job via a recruiter. However, I don't recommend using a recruiter, and I think you're better off using your network, if you have one. Using recruiters was unpleasant for me, to say the least. I'm not saying all recruiters are bad, just that the ones I interacted with were far from awesome. At least they got my foot in the door before pumping me for the interview questions on the way out the door.
Interviewing: I read a couple of books on interviewing, did a very small amount of l33t code style practice (which I found boring and didn't seem helpful). I looked for sample interview questions and practiced writing down responses. I think live in-person mock interviews would have been helpful, but I didn't have anyone to practice with. I looked back on my old jobs and tried to imagine creative ways of making it sound like I'd been a positive contributor (which I was, but sometimes you feel powerless to make much of an impact at the time, so everything you did seemed pointless looking back at it).
Surviving: My "job lifetime" - defined as how long I can stand a job without feeling like I'm going out of my mind - seemed to be about 1.5 to 3 years (the first 6 months is the honeymoon phase where I'm learning a lot, and then gradually I start to know what's what, and I get disillusioned). It seemed to decrease after each job, which is probably why I decided to go with gig work after my last position. I wish I could tell you about surviving, but I didn't "survive" my jobs very well. You might want to try gamifying things, something that never occurred to me at the time. Since you're planning to quit anyway, pretend that whatever you do doesn't much matter, and just do your job however you want (within reason - nothing illegal!) so that at least you are getting something out of it. Maybe this wouldn't have been possible with your old job. In my jobs, I definitely saw coworkers get away with things that I thought were "wrong," but were clearly tolerated by management, so I think I had more leeway than I realized at the time.
Take work less seriously? It's there to pay the bills. It's a waste of your time on earth, but you also probably don't want to be on the street, which would also be a waste of your time, and much more unpleasant. You might try gig work, if you can find it, and see if that agrees with you. Usually the gigs are a little more transactional, and sometimes you find ones that are actually fun with cool people. Churn is expected - no one finds it strange that you left a gig after 3 months.
You can take the opposite tack and try creating your own work out of what you love, a la Will Shortz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Shortz
My feeling is that this is just not possible unless you're pretty narrowly passionate about one thing. And not everyone wants to make their passion into a profession.
Yes, you can still do that directly (I did that just the other day).
I can't entirely understand Google's announcement, but it almost sounded to me like they will forbid sideloading if you're not an "official" dev (gone through their hoops). I also saw something in their statement about wanting to support hobbyists. It sounded like an afterthought.
For those who are curious, this seems to be a link to the Philip K. Dick essay referenced in your comment:
https://philipdick.com/mirror/essays/How_to_Build_a_Universe...
"How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1978). It holds some interesting parallels to the current times.
> On a whim I went 'whole food, plant based', which means no processed foods or animal products
Plant-based can include some animal products, though. That's the definition I'm familiar with.
Anyway, I'm curious to know how you get your food without packaging. Do you literally grow and can everything yourself?
When I buy salad, it comes pre-washed in a large plastic container. Even when I buy the far more expensive locally grown stuff in the summer, it comes in a plastic bag.
I can get berries in small cardboard boxes, but only during the short window when they're growing locally. Otherwise, if I want berries, my choices are to get them frozen in a plastic bag, or fresh and in a plastic container.
I do buy some foods in steel cans, like beans. If I bought dried beans, they'd come in a plastic bag. Our lentils are shipped in a box and wrapped in a sturdy plastic bag. Then we can get tomatoes in glass bottles.
There are a few things I get without any packaging: bananas, apples, potatoes, onions, broccoli. But those things are in the minority. They are mostly shipped from far away, in bulk in cardboard boxes, I believe. There's another small window when you can get them locally.
Anthropology, physics, computer engineering have the three highest unemployment rates in Feb 2025. Computer science is in seventh place at 6.1% unemployment rate.
If you feel you have no choice, though, I wonder if you could try to gather together a group of people who are in a similar situation, in order to do practice sessions. Each person could take turns explaining a leetcode problem on a whiteboard. It would give you interview practice, help you make networking connections, and hopefully make the task less boring and introduce an aspect of accountability. I think you'd have to be careful to make sure that the people involved were friendly and helpful, not make it about one-upmanship. Anyway, that is what I'd do today, if I had the problem that I needed to pass leetcode tests.