[tracker1]

I used to be fairly similar.. usually chewing through a book a weekend, and working on learning something new every other week. It gets old after a while. I actually make myself take lunches away from my desk most days. I try to live about 20-40 minutes from work so I can wind-up/down well. I tend to veg most evenings, but do a fair amount of reading still.

I actually took my first real vacation in about 7 years this past year. I left my laptop/tablet behind and my phone had no cell service most of the trip, it was actually in airplane mode most of the time. As an aside, it's amazing how long a cell phone will last with the antennas off.

I'm turning 40 at the end of the year, and still love programming. I'm still learning, and working with newer technologies, and now have the experience to see a lot of issues I may have glossed over, or ambitiously tried to circumvent when I was younger. My life is far more pragmatic now, and I assign value into down time. You should too.

My brain is still working through problems to be solved, and solutions to be worked through when I am at lunch, and in my off hours. The difference is that now I am much better prepared to deal with them during the on time.