Carmack is clearly talking about "work you care about" in his post. That's not necessarily the work you are paid to do by your employer, though it might be. Ha

Carmack is clearly talking about "work you care about" in his post. That's not necessarily the work you are paid to do by your employer, though it might be. Having the mindset that all your talents are equally available to "corporation you" as they are your employer is a key takeaway from Carmack (and others) I think. Even if you are paid to do things you don't care about, save energy for things you do care about and don't limit yourself by thinking of it as "just a hobby" if you really care about it. When Carmack had a 9-5 coding job he still made games any way he could. The effort he put into that "work" was what really mattered for his success. If he had the mindset that he should only work for the employer and only 9-5 we'd never have heard of him. We can't all be Carmack but many of us can do better than spending all our effort on something we don't really care about.