Philosophy is excellent food for thought, working through a MOOC course (MIT/Yale?) and doing the prescribed readings might strike your fancy. Happy to give more specific recs if you have some existing curiosity about a topic. Side note that it’s difficult to find people to talk to online about serious philosophical topics, the options I’ve seen (discord groups, facebook groups) usually aren’t very engaging but the reading and lectures and contemplation are engaging on your own imo.

Watch ancient history documentaries like the Fall of Civilizations or History with Cy channels on youtube (Fall of Civilizations is also/originally a podcast if you prefer). Whenever I am feeling empty of interesting thoughts this is my go to. When I watch frequently I constantly find my thoughts combining and recombining history with my current experience in a way that feels awfully close to intellectual stimulation. I also find it gives some mildly comforting perspective on current events.

Built to purpose gadgets. Getting into arduino or similar as a hobbyist can be intellectually engaging. The process of identifying something in your space you could enhance then drafting and executing a plan (including some basic programming) is kind of like a puzzle. Building things you don’t need like an LED based checklist for chores that resets every day, a pedestal that spins to give a house plant even sunlight, or a solar powered bird house might be a fun challenge.

Edit to add that if you live near a university professors will usually let you unofficially audit their class if you’re interested in a topic and have time during the week.

That’s wild!!

Find a nice waterfall and build a hut by it

Flow charts or bullet lists as visual aid. The higher position your interlocutor is in the simpler you should try to keep your point. If you need their input on a project only bring them one A vs B decision at a time.

Have you considered how you might feel about IT in other contexts? For example, in an academic environment, in a library, at a small nonprofit, etc. I ask because my job (data analysis and technical writing office work) varies drastically across types of businesses and I find that I prefer working around academics.

I’ve been hoping for a photo project like that—I use a photo storage service that’s e2e but it’s a pain to look through the photos

I don’t know but I’ve noticed a price difference in the US too. I am usually actively avoiding the gels because they’re not vegetarian so it doesn’t bother me but it’s weird since it’s the same vitamin content like you mentioned.

My coworkers and I have to remap the network drives to our office wide file systems 2-3 times a day to access the files. This is the main file storage(some teams have moved some stuff to google drive but that doesn’t work for sensitive info).