I was thinking about the same recently… The solution I came up with was to do something that would have nothing to do with what I do professionally. So I decid

I was thinking about the same recently… The solution I came up with was to do something that would have nothing to do with what I do professionally. So I decided to learn LISP (Janet in particular), improve the tool I use to manage my finances with language and whatever else comes. So far I’ve been having tons of fun tweaking lite-xl editor to work exactly the way I want it to with that language, and I haven’t even started the toy project I set out to build to begin with! IMHO it has to do with intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation, and anything that can improve my career, land me a new job or anything along those lines turn into “work” and without $$ to give it meaning I find no interest in it. Thus LISP, obscure languages and text editors! Edit: I might end up using it in haiku, react or serenity OS for the same reason :)