While you are completely right, in that this is very common: losing passion for your hobby when it becomes a job. The problem is that your hobby has now become

While you are completely right, in that this is very common: losing passion for your hobby when it becomes a job. The problem is that your hobby has now become too structured and rigid, not giving you enough freedom to allow for the play and creativity you were used to. Hence, it feels like you actually lost passion for, say, computers. You actually just dislike the "rules" imposed on you, by your job. Not all jobs will be like this, but many will. Going from a hobby programmer/hacker to a Java enterprise programmer will definitely, most often, end up being like this. Whether you are working on BI, ERP, or video games. This is probably why so many are attracted to startups and startup culture, as there is less rigidity, also, why many like to just "play startup" (like a HN post called it out), and stay a "startup" for years. It is the same thing that happens to kids who enjoy a sport, but once it becomes too serious it's no longer fun.