>>2578755I'm in a similar boat, though with programming having been my primary hobby, then lifestyle, then profession, from childhood and on. However since first whoring it out in the dotcom period and experiencing what could well be called loss of passion, I've found that in my case it wasn't as much a question of passion as it was one of putting the employer's goals on a pedestal and neglecting my own, viz. of improving myself at it & having fun doing so.
That being said, software has formal criteria of technical goodness derived from the foundations of computing science as a mathematical and natural-sciences discipline. There are traditions if one knows where to look (the "full /g/entooman" being one of those, by now), fundamentals one can check if they've been forgotten, ignored, or rejected, and basic technique to practice (ideally) every day. It's easy to get one's hand back in over a few weeks after having fallen out.
Now, I've only ever played Babby's First "Aura Lea" (or Love Me Tenderly) on an acoustic guitar, so I know nothing of how music works in this regard (or any other, really). But I can say that "selling out" doesn't happen by just getting a paycheck.
However, I'm also not about to do photography for a living. Caveat lector.
