As we were driving to lunch one Friday, another programmer and I saw a backhoe in use, and started favorably comparing 'backhoe operator' to 'programmer': you g

As we were driving to lunch one Friday, another programmer and I saw a backhoe in use, and started favorably comparing 'backhoe operator' to 'programmer': you get to work with heavy equipment, you can see the results of your work, when the day is done you go home and don't have to think about it. We laughed and cringed, as backhoe operator sounded like a better job by the time we were done. For me, I can't do anything else. I'm sure I could learn something else, and I certainly get burned out from time to time. However, I find the whole development process fascinating, I still get a kick out of solving the puzzles and making things work, I am deeply gratified to see something I made help someone else solve one of their problems, and code is affecting more and more of the population for better and worse. There's no place I'd rather be. There's a scene in 'Heat' where De Niro's criminal and Pacino's cop characters are talking about why they do what they do over a cup of coffee at a diner, and it turns out they're both compelled and couldn't do anything but what they do. I'm not sure what I'll do when the Butlerian jihadists or the twenty-something Angular developers come for me, and I have to go find something else to do, but I think I'll keep at it until then.