Excellent post, nothing like a ramble really ... I've only been here (in any intensive way) a short time, but like many others, I have enjoyed many of your posts and have found them thought-provoking. I hope you will still find time to pop in here from time to time.

This post, of course, makes me think not only of my own very current "am I a programmer?" simmer, but also of my also-previously-noted sidetrip into the world of theatre, where among other things I found that -- while I may have had some smidge of talent and a quirky appeal for some -- I was very definitely "the wrong personality" to be an actor.

I vividly recall the first time I auditioned for a play during my time as an MFA candidate in acting at a large midwestern U. Mind you, I was a graduate student in the theatre program. Many of the undergrads, however, somehow became convinced (I guess by the way I carried myself? I'll never know) that I had (and I quote) "wandered over from the Math department to try out for a play." I guess that should have told me something.

To this day, though, my personal version of the great Chuang Tzu's "butterfly" quandary is "I (Glenn the would-be programmer/IT guy) dreamed I was an actor; but what if I am an actor, dreaming I am Glenn the would-be programmer/IT guy?"

That's clunkily put but mebbe good enough.

At any rate, tilly, the very best of luck to you.

Regards,

G