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.


I credit SRE with starting my hiking hobby. Never liked being in nature until I was forced to sit in front of a computer screen for 40-60 hours a week and some weekends.
Now I’ve been to a dozen national parks, about as much state parks and one of the few joys I get is planning the next outing.