I did something recently I wish I did years ago, I picked up a second language for personal projects. Which just so happened to be python, but I agree it probably doesn't matter, but from my experience don't use the same language you use at work everyday.
I'm not sure if I'm alone but I spend WAY to much time in front of my computer. 8-10 hours a day working, and then I often use my laptop casually to write stuff at night in front of the TV.
There came a point several years ago where I became disgusted with Windows. Not so much Microsoft, more enterprise infrastructure teams. But the negativity flowed over to personal use. So I brought a mac for personal use, I wanted the disconnect between work and fun. Windows for me is over, I'll never have another Windows machine in my house... in fact it will mainly be appliances for me... and by that I mean Apple products.
For a long time I plugged on using mono, but I lost the drive to program it just wasn't fun anymore. I'd get 80-90% of the way through a project and just hate finishing it. As soon as the fun exploration bit was over and I had to spend time aligning pixels or whatever it just felt like work. I hated it.
By pure chance I started using python to show my unskilled friend some ideas. He could follow python without much guidance, C# confused him. Since then I've grown to enjoy programming in the evensong again. I'm not sure if its the same disconnect I needed between work/fun or what... but its working.
Especially the ability to sit with my macbook, feet up on lazy chair, half watching TV, terminal open testing bits and pieces, IDE doing the thinking for me (PyCharm gets a thumbs up from me), and a nice hassle free (and inspectable) stack. The casual nature of python just seems to click perfectly with my mood in the evenings.
So theres my advice for languages, separate work and fun. Don't use the same stack for enjoyment as you do for stress endeavors.
I'm not sure if I'm alone but I spend WAY to much time in front of my computer. 8-10 hours a day working, and then I often use my laptop casually to write stuff at night in front of the TV.
There came a point several years ago where I became disgusted with Windows. Not so much Microsoft, more enterprise infrastructure teams. But the negativity flowed over to personal use. So I brought a mac for personal use, I wanted the disconnect between work and fun. Windows for me is over, I'll never have another Windows machine in my house... in fact it will mainly be appliances for me... and by that I mean Apple products.
For a long time I plugged on using mono, but I lost the drive to program it just wasn't fun anymore. I'd get 80-90% of the way through a project and just hate finishing it. As soon as the fun exploration bit was over and I had to spend time aligning pixels or whatever it just felt like work. I hated it.
By pure chance I started using python to show my unskilled friend some ideas. He could follow python without much guidance, C# confused him. Since then I've grown to enjoy programming in the evensong again. I'm not sure if its the same disconnect I needed between work/fun or what... but its working.
Especially the ability to sit with my macbook, feet up on lazy chair, half watching TV, terminal open testing bits and pieces, IDE doing the thinking for me (PyCharm gets a thumbs up from me), and a nice hassle free (and inspectable) stack. The casual nature of python just seems to click perfectly with my mood in the evenings.
So theres my advice for languages, separate work and fun. Don't use the same stack for enjoyment as you do for stress endeavors.