The venerable fellows at SATN.org say it more briefly and better than I perhaps:
“Coding is fun, especially when the problems are subtle, the tools powerful, and the architecture you are framing out keeps surprising you with new insights into unanticipated ways to think about things.
So few of my peers in their late 40s and 50s get a chance to think and sculpt in code anymore. It’s too bad. Back when I was a VP and Chief Scientist at Lotus, I tried to make sure I spent 50% of my time doing technical work, just to keep my knowledge current – and 20% coding. How can you manage people, and organize complex projects, without knowing intimately how it feels to create?“
Petafloptimism 