Very well said. Music is... hard. (I guess all careers in the arts are.) I too have worked both as a musician and a programmer, although I decided to go back to music after almost burning myself out writing code in my 20s. (Music is what I studied at university; I am a self-taught programmer.)
My main reason for returning to music, of course, was a love of it – but the constant voice in the back of your mind you mention was also a part of it. This voice nagged through my programming years, dulled somewhat by the immersive nature of programming and the sheer joy of getting things working. (Even now it's hard not to want to jump back in when I see something interesting on HN!)
My thoughts on music as a career at this point (I'm in my mid-30s now), is that: you really need to want to do it, because the rewards in terms of recognition, financial success, etc, are minimal and/or fleeting. Having some financial buffer from having worked in the computer industry helps, but you need to not leave it so late that you forget the hunger, or that you are accustomed to a comfortable lifestyle. The biggest thing that I've realised in the past few years, and this applies more to composer/performers than it does to concert musicians, is that if you want to find an audience (and then perhaps some success), you really need to find the core of what makes you unique and go with that. The world is already saturated with composers and musicians that sound like a lot of other people. (This is a lower bar than the sort of groundbreakingly uniqueness that comes along once in a generation, but it's a bar nonetheless.)
Anyway, I've rambled enough. My best wishes to anyone that chooses the music road.
My main reason for returning to music, of course, was a love of it – but the constant voice in the back of your mind you mention was also a part of it. This voice nagged through my programming years, dulled somewhat by the immersive nature of programming and the sheer joy of getting things working. (Even now it's hard not to want to jump back in when I see something interesting on HN!)
My thoughts on music as a career at this point (I'm in my mid-30s now), is that: you really need to want to do it, because the rewards in terms of recognition, financial success, etc, are minimal and/or fleeting. Having some financial buffer from having worked in the computer industry helps, but you need to not leave it so late that you forget the hunger, or that you are accustomed to a comfortable lifestyle. The biggest thing that I've realised in the past few years, and this applies more to composer/performers than it does to concert musicians, is that if you want to find an audience (and then perhaps some success), you really need to find the core of what makes you unique and go with that. The world is already saturated with composers and musicians that sound like a lot of other people. (This is a lower bar than the sort of groundbreakingly uniqueness that comes along once in a generation, but it's a bar nonetheless.)
Anyway, I've rambled enough. My best wishes to anyone that chooses the music road.