Subjective perspective from personal experience: We program for various reasons. We got into it because we loved it then it became our job and what started as

Subjective perspective from personal experience: We program for various reasons. We got into it because we loved it then it became our job and what started as something we do for fun became something we do to survive. We no longer have a lot of freedom what we want to program and we are required to code for objectives that doesn't interest us. On top of that, it becomes something that identifies us and more or less the only tool we have at hand to prove we are successful. Many start dreaming how can they change the world with this tool and invent the next big thing. We start attempting to hit jackpots by creating one project after the other and failing miserably in all. By late 20s mid 30s we get burnt out from failure and many move to management. The ones that stick are the ones that program for no reason other than they enjoy it and are content with that. They aren't trying to change the world, become super rich etc. Sometimes they do by mere luck but it wasn't their intention. My suggestion here is to tinker. For example, when was the last time you benchmarked a string comparison function and found out exactly why it bottlenecks down to the cpu instructions, instruction ordering, barriers, caching etc ? It's fun and can suck you in for days and a great learning experience. The example here is specific, but the gist of it is not. I hope it helps you.