[koz_]

I used to suffer from regret a lot and I'm not entirely sure how I got over it. It could be just that I'm older and have had more opportunities to see that no matter how many of my dreams I achieve there is always room for perfectionism and regret to wedge their way in and dominate my thinking.

One's life isn't supposed to look a particular way, and international recognition and fame isn't a prerequisite for living a fulfilled and meaningful life. Fulfilment and meaning come not from making all the right choices every second of the day, but rather from just spending more of one's time following one's joy (and expanding the set of things that one finds joy in).

If gaming used to bring you joy but now programming does, then great, do programming. It will take you places and you don't have to worry about where, exactly. Just a high level directive like "this seems like it will be more productive than that, in general" is sufficient direction.