"What happened to the ways of the hackers of yonder? Why are we interested less in systems and more in getting that promotion and that joy. What happened to that internet where you could express your thought in code and break and mix systems in new ways."<p>Life happens. You realize that hacking on a fun project doesn't pay the bills and if you want to have a nice lifestyle, you will need to get some sort of job. A job means you will be working on something at some point that is boring/you don't really want to do it.<p>This is why I left that life and started my own company. I hack on new projects constantly and still have the same amount of fun I always did when I was much younger.