[talmir]

Talk about taking every single word I wrote literally :) Thats ok.

I do regularly work on side projects. But being 100% productive 100% of the time, in my mind, is not healty. This is my personal opinion.

The assumption you make about your vocation being your passion and for me it being just to pay the bills could not be more wrong. I have been a coder all my life. It is my job now and will continue to be as well as my passion. I will continue improving and working on all kinds of things.

The difference is that I allow myself some breathing room to be a person, not just a machine, on a regular basis.

[dkhenry]

Here is how I see it. If your going on a drive and you have three choices, one of them is the most direct route its on the freeway and you will make it there is the shortest amount of time, the second is a winding country road it takes twice as long, but you get to enjoy the country road maybe listen to the radio maybe roll your windows down and enjoy the fresh spring air, and you have a separate freeway that is underground and always has a traffic jam. Doing nothing as your described is to me the third option, your just wasting time for no reason whatsoever and your telling yourself this is nice because I am not stressing out about whatever, but your still wasting you time. Relaxation doesn't have to be fruitless, for instance I relax by gardening. It is both calming and productive. After watching that movie or playing that game _most_ of the time all you have is three less hours to do something productive. You have just sat in that underground freeway when you could have been enjoying a spring drive or getting to your destination faster.

[talmir]

In the scope of my article, when will you be at your destination? Will you be driving at full speed on the freeway for the rest of your life until your car breaks down from wear and tear? Or would you not rather arrive there a bit later with your car still running and still in good health.