For me, the answer is: I like programming. If I did my own thing, I'd have to do all that other non-programming crap, too. Suddenly I wouldn't be a programmer anymore. Meh.
That's strange, given that a lot of people get out of their steady jobs because they're frustrated with how little time they have to code between meetings, random co-workers interrupting them, etc.
I guess you work in an environment where that's kept to a minimum.
I guess that'd depend on the situation and I certainly understand that feeling - I've been there before!
I presently work for http://iconfactory.com, and we try to keep meetings to a minimum as a matter of principal. Artists need flow to do their thing just as us programmers do, and the company is run by artists. I'm also remote so the only random co-worker interruptions I have are via iChat.
I'd still call that programming. Turning requirements into code is part of the job, and even if you spend all day doing nothing but listening to people spout incoherent requirements at you, you're still wearing the hat of a programmer.
Contrast that with a startup where you wear many hats at once, including spouting incomprehensible requirements yourself, and I think that's where I'd tend to agree with the parent poster.
Not all meetings are meaningful, of course, but communicating with your coworkers and customers is an essential part of the practice of producing software.
But wouldn't it be more fun programming on YOUR terms, not your employer/boss' terms? Even if that meant you had to spend a bit more time managing your business?
When you're running your own business, you work on the market's terms. The market is the most unforgiving, inflexible, demanding, and heartless boss of all.
But still, without that extra level of indirection of employer/manager between you and the market, the terms are not distorted and you have the freedom to interpret it in whichever way you want to. Of course, the consequences as well.
I prefer market being my immediate boss than anyone else.
Is it actually just "a bit more time"? I can only go by what I hear from others, but the stories I read in HN comments make it sound like that "bit more" is at least half-time work.
When I was freelancing, 35-40 hours per week, it was quite often that I only got to spend 10 hours a week doing actually programing. Anything over 20 was amazing.
You are forgetting, that if you spend 20 hours/week on your own business, then you would spend most of these 20 hours thinking and only ~5 hours/week coding.
Which would probably move your business forward very slowly.
