I used to think that I loved programming as a career because it makes me learn all the time. That's a two edged sword because you can't be complacent but I was

I used to think that I loved programming as a career because it makes me learn all the time. That's a two edged sword because you can't be complacent but I was proud of the fact that I would never be a cog at a company who only had work because no one else wanted to do dead end work that I was doing. But, today my son was reading a book about ionic bonding. And it made me think, I'm not learning about anything outside of a narrow realm of programming. I'm only learning about yet another JavaScript framework that will not be as shitty as the last. But no one outside of a few people will ever really care about, much less understand at all. Keeping up with all that stuff takes so much time and I'm always feeling like I'm not keeping up with my imaginary peers. I feel like I've stopped learning about other things outside of programming because I am always trying to keep up with the infinite realm of software development. As a father of three young kids, it is exhausting. I asked my son what exactly he was reading this morning on the way to school about ionic bonding. He didn't remember. So, maybe all isn't lost, and I'm not the only one with an empty head in the family. But he's 9. I'm 48. Fuck.