If this job doesn't require working too many hours a day, I'll be glad to work this to death. For me, the ideal job is the one where you put in the least amount of time but get the most money out of it.

Definitely the latter.

Too late for me to answer... I am already retired.

I have done the first a number of times, always with an end date in mind.

As a software developer, I'd define "horrible job" as a "death march project", one so poorly defined, managed, and resourced, that there's zero hope of a good outcome, and usually comes with the expectation of lots of unpaid overtime, etc.

I've worked those kinds of projects. One time, I worked such a project but got combat pay for it -- an hourly rate that I still, after almost 20 years, haven't quite reached in my ordinary course of business. I endured it for two years.

On the other hand for the past decade I've had a dream client and mostly dream colleagues (with a couple of obligatory "clinkers" ).

I would rather do this until I drop, much less retire -- in preference to my "combat pay" death-march project.

What's wrong with doing what you love for the rest of your life? That sounds great to me.