Before giving you specific advice, there are a few general principles:
1. Happiness at work frequently has more to do with your circumstances at work than with what you do at work. The three major factors are Freedom, Mastery, and Purpose.
2. Unhappiness at work can usually be traced to missing one or more of those factors. You want to identify which ones you're missing, and come up with a plan to gain them without sacrificing the others. One major mistake people make is to make a career change that, e.g., gives them more Freedom but takes away the learning opportunities needed for Mastery.
3. Generally speaking, Freedom and Mastery are functions of how long you've been at a job. You get better at your work and gain more autonomy the longer you stay in a specific field. Purpose is usually a function of company culture. So if you feel like your company is doing great things and you're learning fast but the job is too restrictive, the best option is usually to stick it out and "pay your dues" until you have more autonomy. If you feel like you have plenty of autonomy and are good at what you do but your company is evil, then it's time to join something else.
So of those three factors, what does your current job give you, and what does it fail to provide?
I found the Flow book a much better "happiness model" than what you describe. It is less strict and concise, but gives the reader a lot of room for his own thoughts. Such simplifications make thing worse, (n-rules guides toward improvement,etc.) he really should discover his own way.
Flow is great, but it's a very different concept from happiness at work. Flow refers to one specific mental state, and different people want different amounts of flow in their lives. But it's completely possible to be passionate about what you do and love your life without ever experiencing flow.
I agree that oversimplifying can make things worse. There are really dangerous simplifications out there, such as "just follow your passion!" or "do what you love and the money will follow." But Self-Determination Theory[1] is a well-developed field backed by research and experimentation-not something pulled out of thin air like most happiness advice.
You're right, I was talking about Self Determination Theory. I just wanted to spend my post directly addressing the OP's concerns as much as possible, rather than write several extra paragraphs explaining the theory. "Freedom, Mastery, and Purpose" are also common terms used to explain SDT outside the Psychology community, even though they're not exactly the same as Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness.
> Happiness at work frequently has more to do with your circumstances at work than with what you do at work.
It's not just work, but the rest of your life. This is something glossed over by a lot of people, particularly in the HN demographic. But I'd look at engagement with family, non-technical hobbies and interests, health and fitness, relationships, community, travel and vacation, and the like.
Work does matter, but it's only a part of the puzzle. The advantage of additional anchors outside the office is that these are often areas in which you have more control. You can be self-directed and cannot be fired in your hobbies, interests, and health (though relationships can and do end unpleasantly at times).
My suggestion is to provide more bases for your self-worth and engagement.
Aren't you guys kind of ignoring his question? He didn't say that he's unhappy with his life and wants to quit his job, he said he doesn't want to be a programmer anymore and needs help figuring out what to do next. People spend a majority of their waking life at work, they should be doing something they enjoy.
I went through something similar a few years ago. I didn't get a computer science degree but fell into programming on my own because I picked it up easily, but I didn't want to spend the rest of my life being a programmer and I saw that I didn't identify with other programmers that loved their jobs. I've always done some design with programming, worked around a lot of designers, and eventually switched to becoming an interaction designer (which allows me to be analytical with my work but spend a limited amount of time in code).
If there's a way for you to try something else at your current job, don't be afraid to talk to your boss and your peers about it. I thought I would get a lot of flack for not wanting to do the job I was hired for, but everyone in my company was extremely supportive. If you're a good employee, you can be as good doing something else and people want to be supportive of that (and keep you, no matter what you do).
1. Happiness at work frequently has more to do with your circumstances at work than with what you do at work. The three major factors are Freedom, Mastery, and Purpose.
2. Unhappiness at work can usually be traced to missing one or more of those factors. You want to identify which ones you're missing, and come up with a plan to gain them without sacrificing the others. One major mistake people make is to make a career change that, e.g., gives them more Freedom but takes away the learning opportunities needed for Mastery.
3. Generally speaking, Freedom and Mastery are functions of how long you've been at a job. You get better at your work and gain more autonomy the longer you stay in a specific field. Purpose is usually a function of company culture. So if you feel like your company is doing great things and you're learning fast but the job is too restrictive, the best option is usually to stick it out and "pay your dues" until you have more autonomy. If you feel like you have plenty of autonomy and are good at what you do but your company is evil, then it's time to join something else.
So of those three factors, what does your current job give you, and what does it fail to provide?
For more on this topic, see self-determination theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory