ludoo
You learn to live with pain, and adapt to it. You learn that some activities are off limits, and will probably always be so. The trick is not to start feeling diminished, not fall into depression by comparing yourself to a mythical healed self, and learn to appreciate the life we have, which even with a bad back is still incomparably better than what the rest of humanity experienced for most of its existence on Earth.
There are ways to get better though, if you don't despair: after 10 years of trying countless practices and remedies, a combination of McKenzie exercises and acupuncture is finally working, allowing me to lead a mostly normal life (eg lots and lots of exercise and just refrain from cycling, contact sports, or bumpy activities like offroading).
My suggestion is to try that with absolute dedication (eg 100 repetitions spread over each day, weekly acupuncture sessions), and if you have no improvements in a couple of months, try something else. Improvement is possible, it just takes a lot of effort and time.
I used to have something similar when I studied Architecture: my drawing table was always covered with thick yellow paper kept in place with painter's tape, on which I jotted down notes and sketches. This is much more practical, as you don't have to cut a new sheet of paper when the old one is too dirty/full.
As for the Design Process, it works in the exact same way you describe in other fields like Architecture, which I studied and practiced ages ago at a more than decent level.
Money (VCs'), the myth of the young billionaire, and a few other things are probably what make developing different.
[1] and given it's freely available, it won't cost you anything... http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/Debt,_The_First_5000_Years
The "thing" could be a watch, maybe with an integrated Moto Hint-like earbud for calls. Or a pager-like device to carry on your belt or pocket, etc. Each screen would have its own battery, so the "thing" would need less power.
I might add that another option would be to study something totally unrelated in college, to broaden your horizons. Literature, arts, architecture will teach you how to understand and enjoy culture, at a level that is difficult to acquire as an amateur. The old "study Latin and Greek to better understand life and humanity" thing is still valid.
I followed your same trajectory (cigarettes -> ecigs), then found Swedish snus, much much simpler than ecigs (no batteries, liquids, etc.), 100+ yrs of history so no unknown long term side-effects, and all the nicotine you need plus some. You might want to give it a try, and stop inhaling stuff. :)
As for my phone, if I were in a position to be worried about customs installing backdoors, I'd prepare a recovery zip beforehand with all my data, then download it from my own server or a secure storage, and flash it after passing customs. Or better yet, travel with a SIM and buy a cheap Moto G, the resale value alone once back at home would make up its US price.
It's about time manufecturers started producing them.
1) books, and working on personal projects to "scratch an itch"; progets grew larger, at some time I started doing it professionally
2) ages ago :)
3) I started as a sysadmin since that's what I self-learned from, programming came later maybe 3-4 years
Reading other replies, I totally forgot to mention I first started programming in Basic on a TI-99 with a tape recorder for storage. :D
Then I understood what I had missed all this time: I love nicotine, and the surprising thing is that without all the toxic stuff in cigarettes it's not as addictive as it's made out to be.
I often go hours without a portion of snus and completely forget about it, while I could not stay away from cigarettes for more than a couple of hours without getting restless.
You only need to launch another successful project which will in time develop a strong international community like redis, then you'll speak and write English like a native. :)
Plus, the Last Supper is a huge fresco, not just "a painting", which from concept to execution took several years.
Then started working like mad on getting out a nice, user friendly, hackable OS to early adopters.
It's all in the OS, especially since nobody knows how the specs of the planned phone will compare to next year's models.
They haven't got a clue... Why don't they start making working ROMs for existing phones. If they targeted a few existing high end phones and the ubiquitous and cheap MT6589 models (quad core, many with full HD screens) they might have a better chance of starting to spread their OS and intriguing users and developers.