I've found the more challenging parts of programming to be working with clients to discover and develop requirements of sufficient specificity to create a coherent design response. In so many ways these efforts draw upon our ancient story-telling practices, personifying the code and behaviors.
I sit on Zoom calls with 'stakeholders', designers, and engineers and imagine we're sitting around a fire telling ever-more elaborate tales. “If the sensor was activated and providing readings but now, more than X minutes have passed without a reading, we need the user to do Y so we will display Z”. Many of the really interesting problems arise from the system level.
My contributions are understanding and communicating up, down, and across the social and technical domains, guiding the specification, development, testing, and delivery of software, hardware, and mechanical systems that touch people's lives. It's gratifying and humbling work.