"I can’t recommend technical writing as a day job for fiction writers, because it’s going to be hard to write all day and then come home and write fiction. Nowadays I work as a freelance writer, so I usually do contract technical writing part of the year and then I take time off and do fiction writing the rest of the year. It’s too difficult for me to do technical writing at the same time as fiction writing — they draw on the same parts of my brain. " - Ted Chiang

Can this be a blocking factor for coding side projects as well? What if companies offered a role where 11 months of the year, you do the company's work, and one whole month you get to make whatever you want? Or a project-based role that covers a year's expenses.