I feel that doing a regular software engineering job would be much easier and exciting because it's just a job and you can have other hobbies. But with AI, you have to read relevant papers on your spare time just to keep up.
Either you don’t know what it takes to be a decent software engineer these days or you are being a bit harsh. I’m a software engineer. I don’t read papers, sure, but I keep myself up to date every week/month reading books, doing side projects during working hours but also on my free time. Granted, I do so because I like it, though but it’s a necessary thing to do if you want to be good at your career.
Regarding your main question: forget about the noise. If you like what you do, keep doing it. If you are doing what you do just because of its employability, you already lost.
I enjoy doing things, but I don't become good at them because I don't invest the time to push myself further. Life has other priorities, but now I'll have to put in extra effort and an extra hour on top of what I was already doing. This has increased my stress level and decreased my productivity.
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Either you don’t know what it takes to be a decent software engineer these days or you are being a bit harsh. I’m a software engineer. I don’t read papers, sure, but I keep myself up to date every week/month reading books, doing side projects during working hours but also on my free time. Granted, I do so because I like it, though but it’s a necessary thing to do if you want to be good at your career.
Regarding your main question: forget about the noise. If you like what you do, keep doing it. If you are doing what you do just because of its employability, you already lost.
I enjoy doing things, but I don't become good at them because I don't invest the time to push myself further. Life has other priorities, but now I'll have to put in extra effort and an extra hour on top of what I was already doing. This has increased my stress level and decreased my productivity.