Folks with a deep interest to investigate complex systems in their spare time are unusual -- curious, inventive, and driven. They seek epiphanies about how the

Folks with a deep interest to investigate complex systems in their spare time are unusual -- curious, inventive, and driven. They seek epiphanies about how the world works and are and willing to dig deep to learn about it. People of this type are displaying the rarest part of the 20,000 hours of practice that's most essential to achieving greatness -- they're pushing themselves to exceed their limits to explore the unknown -- to get better and see farther. And they're willing to try and fail. They're the inventors, the disruptors, the source of all creative change in the world. I suspect most employers won't welcome that attitude. Like most people, they're happy to wear blinders to disruption in their routine (AKA new ideas / better ways). So let them hire programmers who were accountants in a former life. If that kind of person is not you, then you're in luck. True to form, in choosing to discuss your passions, you interviewed differently. In doing that you discovered something very useful -- this is a place where you do NOT want to work. Epiphany revealed; the search continues.