Perhaps it's just my perception, but I find we as Americans are very keen on this notion of being absolutely "passionate" about the career we choose. My mother

Perhaps it's just my perception, but I find we as Americans are very keen on this notion of being absolutely "passionate" about the career we choose. My mother had a much more practical outlook (maybe it had something to do with her immigrating to America as a refugee at the end of the Vietnam war): she said "very few people are actually in a field they love. It's common for people to completely change their careers several times over their lives. If you can find a job you don't hate and it pays well, great! That's better than what a lot of people have. If you can find a job that pays well and that you maybe even like from time to time, even better." Don't get me wrong; I enjoy programming. But it's far from my #1 passion in life. It's what pays the bills. I don't do side-projects (at least as of right now). I'm actually inclined to agree with the author to a certain degree: being passionate about programming will make you a better developer. The same could be said for any field though. Also, to his last bullet point about needing to constantly be learning: I think a person could learn a long-living language (e.g. Java, C++, C#) and expect to have a decent career. Sure if you're aiming to work for startup X, you'll probably need to be hip to newest (and therefore supposedly "best") tech. Even though Java has been the butt of many jokes, it seems like there's always a need for Java engineers!