For me, it's love. The only hate is when others mount speed bumps or road blocks to slow my progress.
it is what I do best
I suspect that's true for many of us here. We should be grateful we found our calling. (I remember once reading that Kareem Abdul Jabbar was born at the perfect time and place to become exactly what he was meant to be: a basketball player. I feel the same way about programming.)
I can't get over the frustrating feeling that we're doing this all completely wrong, there has to be a better way.
Yes, that's the meta beauty of it! I spend almost as much time working on how to develop better as I spend actually developing.
But I haven't found it yet.
Good. If you did, you'd probably die. They didn't name it continuous learning and improvement for nothing.
That's a good rule, I do that too, about 2:3, 2 days to learn and work on my 'environment', 3 days on actual work. Not exactly like that, but on average that's what it works out to.
Travel, build stuff in 'the real world'.
It's a love/hate relationship, it is what I do best but I can't get over the frustrating feeling that we're doing this all completely wrong, there has to be a better way.
But I haven't found it yet.