I love programming, I feel I can express my self threw code. However, I wish my wife and others could appreciate what I do like I do. If I could do it again, I think I'd like to be a carpenter or something that can be appreciated in the physical world.
Work to live not live to work. You're at least the 4th programmer/woodworker on HN I know of. One thing I enjoy about programming is the pay and free time and lack of physical exhaustion such that my fine woodworking tools are proportionately cheap compared to most woodworkers.
I've been doing this awhile and my first dovetail joint was pretty cool... but the hundredth is just sweaty labor, eh. My first whatever is always fun, but the dozenth or hundredth gets pretty boring.
Be careful with the table saw. I'm not a big fan of binary comparisons but there's only two sets of people, those who are terrified of table saws and treat every use as some kind of lion tamer trick and those who have missing fingers.
