Programming was my Plan B, kinda. In high school I was like "I'm a writer, but that doesn't pay the bills, so I'll do software (which I was already doing for fu

Programming was my Plan B, kinda. In high school I was like "I'm a writer, but that doesn't pay the bills, so I'll do software (which I was already doing for fun anyway) and make a lot of money and retire early, then start writing full time." Which was kind of dumb, I didn't have to wait that long to start writing, I've got several early draft manuscripts now (I struggle with editing, though). Also I was always big into making my own games, even as far back as like 6, when I was drawing levels for imaginary games on reams of printer paper at my grandparents. I did eventually start doing that, released several games, spent some time in the game industry for a while, pursued board game design (as a professional hobby) for a while, etc. If board games paid better and if I didn't have so many financial responsibilities and a desire to have money saved up for retirement, I'd probably pursue that full time now, and only program on my own to facilitate that (i.e. make video game versions of my board games, or write simulations to test various mechanisms in my game designs, etc). I don't really want to code for anyone else now, especially the types of jobs/clients I keep getting offered (i.e. in insurance, health, marketing, or finance). But I need to make money, so for now I still do, while hoping a side project or my wife's side business (of being a writer, funnily enough, which she is much better at writing books that sell than I ever was, I just liked making humorous books, those are hard to sell unless you're a handful of authors) takes off enough that I can afford to jump off (or at least take a paycut and switch back to video games or something).