zlacker

One option is to work at a place with longer development horizons and where the top priority isn't getting the latest feature into production by end of day Friday. Research institutes and R&D departments at huge companies (possibly even companies outside the software engineering sphere) for example operate very differently than companies/departments that directly ship software. Of course these places have other problems and they may not necessarily be 'better', but it is at least they are different problems in my experience, and personally I've found them preferable.

>>dagw+(OP)
Getting into these I found pretty difficult for many reasons, and usually you take a significant pay cut.

>>pdimit+8g
Getting hired isn't that hard I've found, if you can show passion and interest for the area. The pay point is however correct. Although personally I've found the pay cut worth it in exchange for getting to work on genuinely interesting problems in a much more relaxed environment with a much better work-life balance. YMMV

>>dagw+VL3
Well if "much more relaxed" environment also fairly translates to less hours (to compensate for the less payment) then I'd be okay with it but I suspect it does not.