Programming for me since I was 12 has been addictive. Im 45. I don't regret that. I was a professional musician for almost 20 years before I went back to softw

Programming for me since I was 12 has been addictive. Im 45. I don't regret that. I was a professional musician for almost 20 years before I went back to software. As a musician I practiced 4-8 hours a day for 15 years. As a software engineer I have had coding durations for much longer periods with more time in between due to burn out. I think as in any pursuit, we can sometimes delude ourselves, that the more we do something whatever it is, the better we will get at it. Its not true. In any performance related field, its acknowledged that there CAN be too much of a good thing. And too much coding is just as bad for you as too much high-jump practice. You will end up with a lot more text files expressing your desire, but you will not be improving. So at some point we as software engineers have to make decisions and choices about how we spend our time and effort without making ourselves robots, pursuing ever diminishing returns, to the exclusion of our personal happiness and fulfillment.