Which part specifically?

I admit, my perspective is that of a higher manager, not an on the grounds developer, so it might not be as helpful, but from my experience, people should pursue what they enjoy doing, and where they spend their free time indicates something about them.

If you spend your free time reading yada yada yada….

If you spend your free time programming…

The OP is saying he does NOT spend his free time doing game devish stuff, THE QUESTION THEN IS WHY NOT?

And if Not, how do we shift his motivation so it aligns with his stated goals?

If however he is sitting around doing nothing related to game dev, what is going on here?

Discipline and time management are critical skills everyone learns eventually, education is meant to drive that into us.

@generaljist Well I guess it does state that the OP has been edited so maybe it said something where your response was more reasonable IDK. But with what it says right now and when I read it, your post is more of a rant where it's easy to tell that you are more of a manager than a coder, no offense. ?

Your answer reads more like what someone might think is important for a software developer if one has not actually worked with it oneself. I have heard some managers in the past talk in a similar style but what goes on day-to-day between developers is completely separated from this high level talk. We don't go around asking each other “Do you feel confident today? Are you hyped to get going?”, i.e. your average manager talk LOL. We ask more like “Do you know enough to get started solving this task or should we have a quick chat to discuss the details?"

understood, and spot on.

I probably should have prefaced my post with where I was coming from.

I recommend programmers pick up a new technology or language every year.

It does not matter as much what it is, but you should constantly be learning, preferably because you want to but at a minimum out of professional competency. How would you feel about a doctor who is five years, ten years, twenty years out of date? How about a lawyer who has not followed legal changes and court rulings for years on end?

Fresh from school I don't expect you to know about anything in depth, a bachelor's degree gives a broad but shallow education. A master's degree gives a little more depth on a few topics. The students may have been the top of their class but are still a raw beginner relative to the industry. Most students discover it a few weeks into the job discovering they actually know very little.

Learn what the academic program offers because it gives a wide net of knowledge. Learn the topics you find interesting because it gives you some depth. But don't make the mistake of second guessing what a potential employer might happen to want. As an industry every specialty is needed, and the best people are those who are passionate. So find your passions and explore what you want. Some employer somewhere can use those skills. Unlike degrees like library science, philosophy, or medieval French literature, we have tremendous demand for whatever skills you bring.