Most of the programmers I know are people who love to learn, and have a desire to excell. Programming is a wonderful thing to learn because there is so much that one can easily spend hours a day learning and refining one's skills. I have found that for myself one of the great things about prgramming is that I can see my progress. Problems that once seemed much too complicated become do-able, and concepts that once seemed just out of my grasp become a part of my programming style.

I think there are a lot of similarities between programmers and athletes. Consider: Both want to push themselves to their limits to see simply what they can do, given enough time, practice and discipline. Both sometimes recieve guidance from a "coach" or a team, and sometimes practice solo. Both sometimes hit walls, or progress plateaus, but eventually work around them.

ivory

But, then, maybe this is just the cold medicine talking... :)