nice article Craig. one litttle thing you left out though;

you have to really enjoy working with the technology. as Confucius said, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."

that is really something that I feel is extremely important. i have to love this non-sense to answer pages at 2 am, apply hot fixes on Sunday mornings and listen to devs complain they need sysadmin access..... the list goes on and on...

but, for some strange reason, i love it.