This article brought back lots of memories. I also used to work in chemistry, started doing programming (because I somehow knew how to do it in the first place) and I worked in Microsoft business for years. I didn't want to be a programmer and I was looking for alternative job options all the time. Then I met a friend who showed me a bit of Haskell, SICP stuff and I also started doing projects with Rails.

Now, years later, I love every day being in the business. I'm learning new stuff every day, like Arch Linux, Vim, Git, EventMachine, Xmonad, the list goes on... It might not be the same for everybody, but open source world was a cure for me to start loving my profession. I'm really thankful for that.