One of the happiest persons that I know is a "dispassionate" programmer. Let's call him AP.<p>AP got a job as an intern in a local small company, and has worked in the same for over 12 years. His company is a Java shop that cranks out run-of-the-mill enterprisey applications.<p>AP doesn't build microservice architectures or large scale services. He doesn't get to use the latest and hottest technologies either. In fact he hasn't learned many new techs, except when the odd client comes up with a new requirement. AP doesn't make tons of money, only slightly above the average national wage. Still that afford him a comfortable standard of living in his small, low cost of living town.<p>AP job might sound boring, but he enjoys it. He goes to work every day, writes features, and get backs home. He knows and gets along well with everyone in the company. After so many years, he knows the codebase inside out and the work is easy and comfortable. He goes out for lunch with his colleagues and takes it easy most days. The company hasn't really been growing, but it hasn't gone bust either, sort of keeping a stead stream of work and revenue.<p>AP is not a passionate developer by the American standard. For him, his job is a way to pay the bills and put food on the table. He doesn't follow tech blogs or podcast, doesn't fiddle with new frameworks or languages. Sometimes might get a passing interest in some cool new tech, but doesn't spend hours of his own time invested in pet projects or open source. In fact I hardly ever know what he is up to at work since he seldom talks about it.<p>So what is AP passionate about? He might not tell you about his latest exploits in Rust, but he'll tell you all about his new road bike. He doesn't attend software conferences, but has run half and full marathons around the world. He doesn't spend 3 hours after work coding a personal project, but having a beer and dinner with friends. He doesn't have a 6 figure job, but his income allow him to pay for his living expenses (including a mortgage in a new 2 bed flat) and hobbies such as travel. He might not work on "cool" projects and "make history", but his job doesn't leave him mentally exhausted, so that he can use his energy doing things he actually care about.<p>If you made it this far, I want to make clear that this isn't an allegory. AP is a real childhood friend and everything I said is true. AP is not an ambitious person, and might not be "successful" for some. He is also one of the happiest people that I know.<p>I always found a bit weird the cult of hustle that we have in the dev world. Not many other professions people would be expected to go above and beyond and feel the passion that is expected of us. I suspect that a good chunk of our profession are closer to AP that we think, but we are oblivious to it because those are the folks that don't frequent HN, write blogs, post on twitter or record podcasts.