this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
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I've heard this before, but haven't found it the case personally. I started work in manual jobs and messing around with computers was my evening hobby. Many years later, I now do IT as a job (partly from gaining skills from that hobby) but also have continued it as my primary thing to do when I'm not working. I was worried when I changed into this career that my hobby would become too much like work to be enjoyable, but I've not found that.

Is this the same for other people, or am I unusual in doing something in my off hours that's so close to my career? I'm genuinely curious to know if others have found the same or whether they found another hobby.

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[โ€“] Hazzard@lemmy.zip 2 points 15 hours ago

Definitely somewhat, but not so much "diminished my enjoyment" as "prevents me from doing as a hobby".

Programmer here, and I find that working on these types of problems just wears out that "part" of my brain. It becomes not fun to force myself to focus on those things as a hobby anymore, despite that being how I got into programming. I don't resent it though, I actually really enjoy doing it as my job. And shake it up a little, and I'll hugely enjoy something like programming systems in Factorio, but any ambitions in have of say, making a game, aren't happening until I retire or change careers.