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Maybe that's the difference... I don't love writing software... I'm good at it... My employer is extremely happy with the job I do... I think it's part of my jo

Maybe that's the difference... I don't love writing software... I'm good at it... My employer is extremely happy with the job I do... I think it's part of my job to follow the industry... follow the most recent trends... But I don't love this. Whenever someone asks me if I like my job I tell them, "No, but I haven't thought of something else I'd rather do yet". I don't think your answer fully addresses the question. Surely you can do it as a hobby and find a way to turn your hobby coding into something that makes money. Hell, isn't that half the reason most of us are here (@HN) watching people turn side projects into businesses and thinking about how to do it ourselves? It seem's contrary to the aims of the community to say they participate in open source projects because it is their hobby. There has to be more to the motivation than that. Perhaps, It's a desire to have other folks that create software look at what you've done and see the good parts of it. Only a Software Engineer can see why this part here was tricky and clever and it's nice to have the kind of reinforcement. Often times a boss only cares about the result, they don't always revel in the tiny clever details that got there.

calloc 16y ago
My love for programming is such that I enjoy doing it while at home, I enjoy working on it on the weekends, I think about what I want to do next all of the time. If someone asks me my answers would be the complete opposite of yours. I am really happy with my job, I work with great people on new software, and new challenges that challenge me to think in different terms, provide new thoughts to the table and find ways to solve new and interesting problems that didn't exist yesterday. That in and of itself is the reason I am a programmer. You are very different from me in that you are a 9 - 5 programmer whereas I am a 24/7 programmer. The difference is that I write a whole lot of code outside of company time that is my own, and there is nothing better in the world than to be able to release code out into the wild to have someone find it, and use it to further their project, to be the cornerstone on which they build the next big thing that I can't imagine yet. Get improvements back, advice, comments, bug reports, and new ideas on where to take this new free software. I've already paid the bills, I've saved some money, I'm developing my skill set, why not release some of my knowledge out into the world for future generations to build upon?

calloc 16y ago

My love for programming is such that I enjoy doing it while at home, I enjoy working on it on the weekends, I think about what I want to do next all of the time. If someone asks me my answers would be the complete opposite of yours. I am really happy with my job, I work with great people on new software, and new challenges that challenge me to think in different terms, provide new thoughts to the table and find ways to solve new and interesting problems that didn't exist yesterday. That in and of itself is the reason I am a programmer. You are very different from me in that you are a 9 - 5 programmer whereas I am a 24/7 programmer. The difference is that I write a whole lot of code outside of company time that is my own, and there is nothing better in the world than to be able to release code out into the wild to have someone find it, and use it to further their project, to be the cornerstone on which they build the next big thing that I can't imagine yet. Get improvements back, advice, comments, bug reports, and new ideas on where to take this new free software. I've already paid the bills, I've saved some money, I'm developing my skill set, why not release some of my knowledge out into the world for future generations to build upon?