“We—you, me, anyone who programs because they love it, who would do it for free if necessary—are a breed apart. It isn’t intelligence, or hard work, or education, although those help; it’s that we actually like this stuff.

I’ve seen far too many people start to treat programming like a job, forgetting the joy of doing it, and burn out. So keep an eye on how you feel about the programming you’re doing, and if it’s getting stale, it’s time to learn something new; there’s plenty of interesting programming of all sorts to be done. Follow your interests—and don’t forget to have fun!