I, too, am young, with a couple years of experience at Well Known Company, hacking away on a somewhat cool project, working at 25% potential, paying my bills and saving some cash. But I am adopting a whole different mindset when thinking long-term future. Wife, children, cars, house, tuition, vacations, etc. There's a whole lot that doesn't make sense about working at Well Known Company for some salary. It's one of the reasons why I spend most of my nights programming and building things that will hopefully generate passive income, or even spawn a business. That's the only way I can see being able to work at 100% potential. That's what makes sense.