A hair dresser's "Just for fun" past-time

Yesterday, when I was having my haircut, after a long 3 month break, my hair dresser asked me...

Hair dresser: "Sir, where are you from?"
Me: "India"
Hair dresser: "What do you do?"
Me: "Guess?"
Hair dresser: "So, if you are from India, you should be a software guy. Right?"
Me: "Perfect. Thanks to clustering algorithms in data mining"

I knew what he does, but I went on to ask him, what else does he do? He told me he takes MIT Online computer science classes once he goes back home and has been learning programming to write some apps for iPhone.

So, I asked him why is he doing all this?

"Just for fun".

Wow. That hit me like a bullet. Learning computer algorithms after a day's job of standing and dressing people's torn hair and that too for fun...I personally was ashamed of myself.

"When was the last time I learnt a new programming language and that too for fun....And I call myself a software guy..."

Realized that being in IT for a decade, has stained me with the whole notion of "cost-benefit" analysis. For everything, I look for a cost and benefit.

"What benefit do I get by learning Python?"
"What benefit do I get by learning clustering algorithms?"

It was a rude awakening. Probably fun is the benefit....