[Adkron]

You are comparing a college student to a professional...

First, you can't "force" yourself to love programming. If you came here for the money and not the challenge, then you will fail. I spent a lot of time in college learning about programming outside of class, but I also spent a lot of time avoiding programming.

The experiences in other parts of your life also help shape you as a programmer. Practicing 14 hours a day 7 days a week is not going to make you the best programmer. Problem solving skills come from all aspects of life.

If you truly want to be a great programmer then you are going to have to practice. The best advice isn't really about programming: -If you program 14 hours a day, and have no other life then it is time to find something else to occupy some of your time. It will change the say you think and help you solve problems better. You need some knowledge of people too or you will create horrible solutions to people's problems, and you will never be successful. -If you never program outside of work/school you need to find a side project. You won't get great without practice. Take at least 4 hours a week to work on something that someone is not forcing you to work on. This can be some OSS project you have been hearing about. It can be a new OSS project you want to build. It could even be the next big thing that will have you buying yachts and race cars for the time you aren't coding.