[jcadam]

I started programming when I was 8, on the family Apple ][. By my late twenties, I was ready to give it up. Working on legacy code bases for bad bosses has a way of sucking the joy out of software engineering (kind of like after four years in the Army I never wanted to go camping again).

But about the time my kids were old enough to no longer need constant, unrelenting supervision (all my kids were born by the time I was 25) I began taking up side projects again, which has largely renewed my love of programming.

So now I put up with the drudgery of the day job so I can go home and work on something I enjoy (I mean really, the day job could be anything at this point - programming just pays better than anything else I could do, and occasionally an interesting problem at work pops up). Which is also why I tend to become extremely resentful if forced to work very much overtime :)