I used to have that dream, not so much any more. I work in IT but have been programming in vb.net and python for the last couple of years. I've created several in house utilities for troubleshooting of our main software and automation of internal processes. (I work for an electronic testing company) I've started many side projects, however the excitement usually wears off in a couple weeks and they don't get finished. I'm dedicated to finishing my current project (been working on it several months now) but after that I think I'm going to focus on smaller side projects that I can finish in a week or two, or perhaps trying to help with some open source projects. I tend to shy away from sharing my code with others. I'm self taught and feel like it's probably real substandard compared to the "professionals".