"Don’t just do programming. Computing is always computing something. Become acquainted with something that requires your software development skills: Mediaeval

"Don’t just do programming. Computing is always computing something. Become acquainted with something that requires your software development skills: Mediaeval history, car engine design, rocket science, medical blood analysis, image processing, computational geometry, biological modeling, whatever seems interesting. " This is the "magic key". Knowing a domain and being a good programmer makes you infinitely more valuable than just the latter.