Programming is not all that much different than other disciplines, and if you spend time in corporate IT, you will see just as many programmers doing their job

Programming is not all that much different than other disciplines, and if you spend time in corporate IT, you will see just as many programmers doing their job just as a job, despite not being in love with it, as you will cooks (not chefs) who don't adore cooking, but do it because they're good enough at it to make a living that keeps them happy. I think part of the reason this thread is generating "programmers are different" comments is that it's easy to believe you're different when yours is the only field you know intimately from the inside (wow, that came out wrong).