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Are you a bad artist if you don't paint on your own time?

Are you a bad writer if you don't write on your own time?

Are you a bad carpenter if you don't craft on your own time?

No. You can be an excellent, professional .+\. But it's very rare to see someone at the top of their field who isn't passionate about their vocation. I haven't heard of many rockstars who started playing music for the money.

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Well the thing about art, music, and writing is that, at least until you make it big (which most people never do) you're doing it only on your own time, since no one's paying you.

Software's in this weird spot where it has some qualities of art (creative, inspires "passion", we expect people to do it without getting paid) and some qualities of a craft (it pays)

School doesn't pay for itself (quite the opposite, really). Learning on your own time certainly doesn't pay for itself. You're right in that a larger proportion of programmers "make it big" but I don't believe there's a fundamental difference.

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