I’ve heard this before, but haven’t found it the case personally. I started work in manual jobs and messing around with computers was my evening hobby. Many years later, I now do IT as a job (partly from gaining skills from that hobby) but also have continued it as my primary thing to do when I’m not working. I was worried when I changed into this career that my hobby would become too much like work to be enjoyable, but I’ve not found that.
Is this the same for other people, or am I unusual in doing something in my off hours that’s so close to my career? I’m genuinely curious to know if others have found the same or whether they found another hobby.
I got into computing early on (high school Fortran programming on punch cards, lol) and really loved it, more so when we switched to BASIC the second year. I decided to pursue that as my career as well and really enjoyed it until retirement. What I think took some fun out of it was my dealings with corporate structure. I think the thing to remember is the seperation between that thing you love and the system that you have to work within to achieve success.
God, you must be even older than I am! We did Basic at school, and our teacher showed us punch cards, and tape, but we never actually used them - BBC B’s being the tool of that time. Those were great times - genuinely pushing the boundaries of the possible, spending hours hand optimising code to save a few bytes or cycles, all with only printed manuals as reference. Understood about corporate structure, and for me also, some individuals can really affect the subject (I detest rudeness in particular)
I really loved programming back then too. And don’t forget arrogance and self promotion (though maybe covered under rude).
You only have to work within a system for success within that system. Alternatives are just waiting for your participation. A better world is possible.
Back when I started it was the norm to get a job with whoever would hire you so that you get the experience to grow and improve your lot in life. I was in a field where if I wanted to move I could get a new job right away. This led to the enviable position to work in a number of different industries, which taught me so much about business and industry. Along the way I worked for some great people but ultimately I would encounter some pretty questionable practices/points of view that were discouraging. As much as I’m sure today’s world is a much different experience, the ability to collaborate with strangers I think is a game changer. My brain doesn’t function well enough now to survive in this environment but I agree that this can lead to positive change. One caveat is that it allows both good and bad actors to excel.