I don’t have a response to share but I always lose my mind when I see AWS error messages, especially when using bazillion layers like CDK for Terraform, executed from the shell script that runs a python script in the CI/CD pipeline.
One of the issues I will never forget was the debugging of permission issue. Dev reported an issue, something like “cannot access the SQS queue from a recently deployed script”. The error message was like “cannot access the queue due to missing policy in assumed role” (or something similar). So, I have checked the python script and related policies - all good. Next I’ve moved to a shell script, still no luck. After that I went through the CDK files, no issues. I was about to involve the AWS support when it turned out that the queue name has been changed manually in the AWS console. AWS, instead of point out that the queue is missing, raised an error about missing access permissions…
If it’s a motivation issue, you will need to figure it out on your own. I could give you some advice but motivation depends on a specific use case. If you want I can share what motivates me but there’s no guarantee it will work for you.
As for getting back on a tech horse, there’s a trick I’ve been using every time I was learning a new thing and it worked every single time. I start with a project idea. I write down the major goals I want to achieve and start working on it. At first I do the “quick start” adjusted to fit my project. It usually ends up with a working proof of concept and a list of things I don’t know/understand. Next, I learn about the those unknowns and update the project with what I have learned. This raises more unknowns which leads to more things to learn about. After few iterations, when I’m happy about the project, I start a new, more complex project. And so on.