I like to write side code projects. You might think I do not have a life outside coding, but I do. I do not spend more than 3 to 4 hours per week on side projec

I like to write side code projects. You might think I do not have a life outside coding, but I do. I do not spend more than 3 to 4 hours per week on side projects. I play the guitar and saxophone. I go out in the weekends. I love mountain climbing. Like the author, "I loathe hackathons" too. But unlike the author, I do have side projects. As someone who has been doing personal as well as public side projects for possibly 20 years now, I think I can share some insights about why I (and perhaps people like me) work on side projects. I grew up in a time when we had computers with 3 MB of memory and 300 MB of hard disk were considered powerful machines in my school. The students would get only 30 minutes of computer time per week. These were times when you boot your computer, type GWBASIC, press <ENTER>, and start coding. This was one of the very few ways to use a computer meaningfully. Writing code in GW-BASIC became like a mindsport for some of us. I would write tiny games, draw diagrams or solve math equations with code. It became a hobby. I guess everyone has hobbies. I have some too. Coding is one of them. It's not the only one. About 10 years later, I learnt that this hobby could become a career and I chose programming and developing software as my career. Is it fair to now be considered a "human machine" who "work 80 hour weeks" and have "absolutely no evening or weekend plans" just because my career also happens to be one of my hobbies?!