Ask HN: Do you miss being excited about programming/tech?

Been listening to the Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick today and it brought memories of the time when I didn't even have a computer yet but already knew everything I could get my hands on about computers and programming. Memories of excitement of tinkering with Pascal and later VisualBasic programming. Excitement from watching the Hackers movie, etc.

I haven't felt that way for a long time now and it saddens me greatly.

Nowadays, I am very pragmatic, and although learning new things is interesting, it's not the same.

Don't know if I can ever get that feeling back. Have you managed to?