You seem to be opposing open source software to "interesting work" -- which in some feilds such an opposition holds truth. In others all the interesting work is open source.<p>As for the post -- the question asked if everyone had a such a large list of pet projects. Your answer seems to be yes too. Sure you dont publish it, but you try to do new projects and methods at work -- pet projects are pet projects, whether at work or home.<p>Also, keeping around "throwaway" code has helped me more than not -- I can find some half remembered example and be using the concept way quicker than trying to come up with it again.