I think many of those of us who get into programming in the first place do it because of some kind of intellectual curiosity and because we get a thrill out of

I think many of those of us who get into programming in the first place do it because of some kind of intellectual curiosity and because we get a thrill out of building things with tangible results. Which is probably why you'll find lots of programmers also interested in playing musical instruments, learning foreign languages, writing fiction and so on. It's a certain kind of mindset. I've been thinking about what jobs can potentially offer the same kind of intellectual stimulation as programming, and while I'm sure they're out there, programming offers this and is a skill that you can actually make quite a bit of money from while not being as ridiculously competitive as, say, being a movie director or a songwriter. If you know of other jobs that fit this bill, let me know.