Re:who hasn't burned out? (Score 1)

I've been programming professionally for 40 years. I still love it.

It's certainly possible to be burned out in an individual job without being burned out on the field as a whole. It's almost a standard part of the career path: when I was in my 20s and single I had one job where I worked 80+ hours a week on a 'death-march' project. I didn't know any better - I thought if a manager made up a schedule, well, gee, I guess it must be feasible, and it was up to me to meet it. Of course I was pissed-off at the time, but in hindsight I learned a lot from the experience.

I've also oscillated between individual contributor and 1st-level manager, independent contractor and W-2 employee. That's also part of the career path. As long as you don't get too high in the management track, you can still program!

If you talk to artists or writers and ask them why they write or make art, many will say they just have to. It's been that way for me with computers. I always enjoyed the magic of writing software: you think, you concentrate, you write code, and then (if you're lucky) this hugely complicated device does what you've asked it to! And you can even get paid for it! It doesn't get better than that....