Yeah, I'm a musician (keyboards), composer, and member of ASCAP -- my soundtracks have aired on major TV networks including A&E. So why am I doing IT? I have a wife and two kids -- my job in IT provide benefits (it was pretty flippin' expensive to provide my own insurance for a family of four as a self employed composer). Plus, my wife really didn't like the ups and downs that go along with making a living in the music biz (feast or famine). So, it's either string together little black dots on a page (music) or string together little black dots (well, ANSI characters) on a page (code). It's really the same kind of skill set -- the ability to imagine a finished work and then construct all the minutely detailed components acting together in concert to make it happen. The ability to remember patterns doesn't hurt either. I've known many others in IT with similar stories. There's an IT guy who lives in my home town -- when you walk into his living room you see the gold records on his wall.