IMO, if you make your hobby your job, it can get old fast.

To me, programming for my job and programming for my hobbies are so completely different that I don't really associate the two. One is not using up my mental capacity or my tolerance for the other. If anything, the hobby work recharges me for the pro work. It's kind of like reading and writing by this point: reading things and writing things at work has no relevance to the things I read or write on my own time. It's just a different form of literacy.

I can see how that would work. I just remember getting really into martial arts when I was younger and took over a studio from another instructor. I remember thinking I loved teaching and being able to make my hobby something that makes money was going to be great. And it was awesome...for like a month or two. It was tough to find the motivation and energy to teach some days. Those days came more and more frequently and it eventually became kind of a grind, so I passed it over to someone else.