In my opinion, if the majority of the people in a job are regularly working >40 hours a week then something is seriously wrong with the project planning.

Like kudra I too love my 40 week, but only because I can then fit in plenty of my own hacking at home :)

I am / was getting paid as a programmer, but now I've settled down for a 8h/week admin job for a small (but mission critical) network. And somehow I must say, I don't miss either the deadlines nor the endless bugs from programming, and it is quite good for my studies to have a job that dosen't absorb me and that I can leave with closing the door behind me - something my programming projects never made possible.

Of course, I still have projects, but they are now smaller and circle more around modifying existing software and integrating different software than creating new software... I think that I've always been one of the admin mind, but I still enjoy programming - just not the time pressure and long projects ...

After my diploma, I hope to find a half-day admin job so I can maybe get my doctorate financed as well :-)

You have it made. A key part of coding is the studying behind the code! I love the idea of working few hours very productively, and spending the rest of the time absorbing knowledge. Plus, I'm convinced that strategic games make you smarter. Are you with me on this?

I have to admit that I'm more content with the current situation than I was before, when working as a programmer to finance my studies. But on the other side, I don't dedicate the rest of my time to absorb computer oriented knowledge (at least I don't spend it actively that way :) ), as I'm still a mathematics student and there is enough knowledge to be absorbed in that field as well ...

On the other side, I don't think that strategic games make people smarter - strategic games may be more complex than other pattern-recognition games like Tetris, but once you have worked out one functioning pattern, you can win always against the computer. Playing against humans is a bit different, but I don't see much to be learned / trained either... Of course, I'm only talking about the influence of these games on me and people in my social group ...

On the other side, I've never really liked games like Sim City, trade games, etc. - the "best thing" there was, was Age of Empires, and even that always quickly devolved into gigantic mass-wars between all players :). This may also be a result of me only playing in a local network with a limited supply of adversaries of course ...