1) It sounds like you have a decent amount of negativity built up from your previous role, and you haven't quite vented it all out. Get it out of your system -- talk to a friend that gets how annoying that was and vent until you're tired of talking about it. Get heard and you'll feel like the negativity is finally behind you.
2) Think about the opportunities that your previous job gave you. Specifically opportunities. Every time a negative thought comes up, ask "What was my opportunity at that moment?" and write down your answer. Opportunity to disagree and commit? Great. Opportunity to solidify your understanding of your own values? Great! Opportunity to challenge yourself and work on something outside of your comfort zone? etc. Write those down and brag about them to your next amazing job!
Memorizing code seems ridiculous. If you remember the algorithm you should be able to derive the necessary code for that. If you use a different variable name, or a while-loop instead of a for-loop will it be "wrong code" ?
But the tech exists. It's not like we're using tin cans and string and trying to replace that with a gizmo; we have the gizmo, and now we're trying to make an open-source version of it. While the goal is admirable there's no real benefit from using a less-tested Raspberry Pi project. There are less risky ways to learn the same lessons - a video walky-talky maybe.
As a father, I generally agree with what you both are saying regarding being conservative with tech choices on delicate areas such as babies, but I‘d also add that 99% of situations of my baby making random noises (that also trigger a baby monitor) are not something that are going yo have an impact on the baby long term. Most times my baby has lost the pacifier in the dark, and finds it before I reach upstairs (or annoyingly, between me waking up, and me reaching my bedroom door).
Also there’s the scary converse: some important things do not make a noise, such as a baby suffocating in her sleep.
How much to log in production is a balancing act – log too much, and you impact performance and make it hard to read through your logs. Log too little, and you won’t be able to use your logs to actually debug anything. However, with a few lines of code, you can change how much you log on demand, without restarting any processes, and avoid the balancing act entirely.
2) Think about the opportunities that your previous job gave you. Specifically opportunities. Every time a negative thought comes up, ask "What was my opportunity at that moment?" and write down your answer. Opportunity to disagree and commit? Great. Opportunity to solidify your understanding of your own values? Great! Opportunity to challenge yourself and work on something outside of your comfort zone? etc. Write those down and brag about them to your next amazing job!