I am fortunate that I've gotten such free rein here, but it's also because I have set it up that way. Coming to work is just such a joy because not only do I have great coding challenges, I can rework the landscape in a way that I'll leave a major division of the labs far better off. Very few people have that kind of an opportunity.

I'm also totally in agreement with you and Tanktalus. Coming home is such a joy because I'm providing such a fertile environment for my family to grow and be happy. I used to spend my free time programming, but I selectively choose my extraneous pursuits so that my wife and son get a lot of attention. Jacob and I will explore programming together in the future, that's for sure.

Even the limited growth of my salary (it's a g-job, after all) doesn't bother me, because I also have a company brewing that takes just an hour of my evening but will repay my investment many times over.

I do have another hobby -- building model trains -- but I haven't gotten to it much because my life is so full. It's fun to escape to figuring out how I'd program a fly-on-the-wall camera such that you'd see virtual people riding the little trolley cars to work...