I think this is a dangerous, irritating mythology that programmers permit to their detriment. Skipping work entirely to go play pool or watch a movie is "fun". Evaluating a new technology stack to see if it fits business needs (present or future) might be _intellectually stimulating_, but deriding it as "fun" - and allowing management to write it off as time-wasting - hurts everybody. This isn't "fun", it's research, just the same as particle physics experiments are, and it's a big part of what we went to college to learn to do effectively.