I understand the spirit of your question, and I do agree: good developers are almost always drawn to programming beyond the minimum requirements of their unive

I understand the spirit of your question, and I do agree: good developers are almost always drawn to programming beyond the minimum requirements of their university program or work. That said, I think people knock 9-5 a little too much. Plenty of good developers like to do something else with their day as well, and find that they write better code and retain their passion if they maintain this balance. If you have a good work environment and can focus (admittedly a challenge between 9 and 5), you can get a tremendous amount done in eight hours.