Working in an industry/space in that industry which you genuinely believe in +

Having the skill to compete competently +

Having a magnificent pay/payout

I would probably be at least happy having just one of the above. All 3 would probably feel like I was on some sort of drugs.

I've found it's when you finish programming, and get to use your new code to accomplish what you set out to do with the electronics that you couldn't do before.

Tying together some existing libraries with a nice bit of code of your own, and making something new and amazing.

In fact, since you ask, I just made something that let's people access data in a whole new way.

Coming soon...

Although these days, asking an AI to do some low-level but complicated task and seeing it done ten times as fast as you could do it by hand is also quite satisfying.

How the SQLite C programmers must feel. Impact.

Being in the flow state.