How should I pursue my passion?
andrewcooke: random probably impractical suggestion, but if you like scheme, maybe you'd like smalltalk (they're both "purist" languages).  and, if so, maybe research at wherever alan kay is these days.  at one point that's what he was doing (interactive 3d worlds etc).[edit: ps, also, if you don't have kids and are experienced you can actually do pretty well at a day job plus your own projects.  i do it, and as far as i know the people i work for are happy.  my day job is contracting, but on long projects and it's typically a mix of "the usual" and stuff that requires fairly serious thought (typically numerical). at the same time i have worked on side projects pretty much constantly - on the python parser "lepl" for over a year, most recently.  obviously if you have a partner they have to be understanding (and/or equally obsessed with their own thing).  i think one helps the other - when work is tedious, side projects stop me from going crazy; when work requires effort side projects get work on web design...  i enjoy both.  i may be the very lucky expception, of course.]