Life: Having a child. The first six months were mad hard. But he's been what gets me up in the morning now... Literally
Programming: Not caring about trends. I've realized I can learn pretty much anything on demand. So I find interesting problems and try to solve them, rather than spend alot of time learning frameworks and languages and hope to apply them. And I've found learning on demand for real problems causes me to learn In a way that sticks better too.
Oh man, having a kid was and is amazing. I used to hate kids, but I can't stand being away from my son now. My wife and I were just talking this morning about having another.
> I've realized I can learn pretty much anything on demand. So I find interesting problems and try to solve them, rather than spend alot of time learning frameworks and languages and hope to apply them.
I find this to be a very good approach and it applies to me as well.
Everything I know about "programming" I learned because I needed something done. 10+ years ago I wanted a website, so I learned HTML. Then I wanted a dynamic website, so I learned ASP and SQL. Then I needed some cool interactions, so I learned JavaScript. Then I wanted to create a web app, so I learned Python & Django. When the time comes to build a chat application, I'll learn Node.
This approach enabled me to have much more time to learn new stuff and learn them well enough so as to build production-ready stuff, because that's the goal at the end of day.
The downside is that I rarely have time or energy to just experiment with something new just for the fun of it. It evens out though because I have fun at work learning and doing stuff I actually need to be doing.
Here's a thought: you probably have an awesome spouse.
Which is not to say your spouse is doing all the work for you (I don't know that. Maybe they are, maybe they're not.)
But when a couple works well together as a team, that's when they can be relaxed about having kids. Unfortunately, many people don't work well together (and don't know it until they actually have to do something major together.)
Programming: Not caring about trends. I've realized I can learn pretty much anything on demand. So I find interesting problems and try to solve them, rather than spend alot of time learning frameworks and languages and hope to apply them. And I've found learning on demand for real problems causes me to learn In a way that sticks better too.