Top developers can have a life outside coding
A lot of comments are bringing up top athletes as a counterexample, which leads me to believe they don&#x27;t understand what a high-level training regimen is actually like.  I have a relatively unique persepective on this[1], so I thought I&#x27;d clarify a few things.<p>Any sport is both mentally and physically exhausting, and it only gets more strenuous as you reach the higher levels.  Nobody can keep this up all day, every day, for their entire working life; people who try flame out early and don&#x27;t make it much of anywhere.<p>Instead, the goal of the top players is to train as much as possible today without sacrificing their ability to continue training tomorrow.  Usually, this is less time than an office job requires (but more strenuous).  The rest of their time is spent in &quot;recovery,&quot; which basically means whatever they want to do as long as it&#x27;s not too taxing.<p>The defining feature isn&#x27;t spending their entire life on the sport, it&#x27;s giving it <i>priority</i>: the rest of their life is scheduled around their training needs instead of scheduling training around their life.<p>[1] I&#x27;ve been on sabbatical for two months at a tennis academy; some of the kids here will undoubtedly make it all the way to the pro circuit.