I suspect that very few of those 800 million chess players get paid to play chess all day every day as a job. More likely, it's an occasional hobby in their fre

I suspect that very few of those 800 million chess players get paid to play chess all day every day as a job. More likely, it's an occasional hobby in their free time, which is great. Even at that, they only represent 10% of the 8 billion people on earth, which suggests that it's a small minority of people who actually care about solving puzzles. And of those, an even smaller number actually apply those skills to do it for a living. What I'm trying to say is that if I were no longer paid to write code I might just end up with hobbies that occasionally stimulated my mind as opposed to having to constantly engage that muscle. Motivation makes a big difference, because even for those of us who compulsively solve puzzles there is plenty of time for ennui.