30 Years. Too many cycles of one popular language/design/data-model/patterns replacing another. Too many bubbles. Too many me-too products. Too many bugs produced faster than they're squelched. Too many simple paradigms made too complex, requiring creation of new simplicities that will only be overly complexified again. Too many people making too much money with too high opinions of their own genius accomplishing too little.

A year and a half ago I saw my wife studying a textbook on Anatomy & Physiology. I started reading it. I thought "OMFG this stuff is amazing! And it can't be learned in 3 days (unlike all these 'hard' problems we hackers like to discuss)."

Now I'm going to school for a career in nursing.