40 hours, and 25 on my own stuff.

There seems to be a false dichotomy afoot: either you live and breathe your job, code for fun, and work as many hours as your company wants, OR you don't really care about the field that much, you probably have kids, and you only put in 40 hours. 

I don't fall into either camp. 

I don't have kids, but that doesn't mean I'm available for you to work me into the ground. 

I want to cap my hours, but that's because I'd rather study and learn on my own time. I want to make my OWN stuff. Not anybody else's. 

Yes, I would like to work only 40 hours a week.

But I actually code a lot outside of work. It's just my own stuff. I don't want to do more than 40 at work because it takes away time from my creative work. I want to learn and make projects. Create and explore the world. 

My goal is 25 hours per week working on my own pursuits and studies. And that's exactly why I need to cap my actual hours at 40. 

And thus my focus over the next few years will be twofold: 1) finally launching my creative and technical projects so that I can eventually freelance full-time. 2) learn engineering (and review CS, get cybersecurity certs, etc.). I don't know how my desire to work in theme parks will mesh with the desire to freelance and not work for anyone, but I'm guessing a virtual resort project -- designed fully by me -- may be a huge component of it. 

When I'm freelancing full-time, I will set my own hours. Maybe they will only be 40. Maybe they will be more since I'm working on my OWN stuff...Don't know. But I will get there in time, and no one else will be able to monopolize my time ever again. Now, time to get started (after doing my stupid taxes, that is). 

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