Just curious on an opinion from other Devs who don't actually work as a programmer...

Would you want to?

I currently work in retail and have a dream job as a genetic engineer majoring in dormant diseases (eg cancers) and personally would never take a job where I will be programming, never merge a hobby and a profession...

Am I alone in this one?

That's wise.
Merging the two can cause quite a lot of problems. You might accedentally find yourself working in the free time for instance. Like I do...

I could copy/paste ginkto's reply. I do love my job. But in the recent years, I have shifted from 100% developing ton20% dev and 80% SEO. Loving it.

@joas is working in free time a bad thing when you enjoy doing it?

EDIT: and with that I mean as long as you do it because you want it, not when people tell you to.

@Codex404
Well, maybe not 🤔

I'm building my own library. And as I'm doing it in free time, I can publish it as open source and benefit the whole community (me included) instead of only the company.

The bad is that I don't get any money off of it like I do when I'm working (currently only part-time). But maybe the problem is me thinking about it through money instead of the joy of doing...