Pre-kids and pre-getting-old, extremely easily and often much longer. Nowadays, rarely! ;-)
I agree with the author that time spent coding isn't a goal in its own right, any more than counting minutes spent at the gym. But if you thrive on programming, it's a net positive in your life, you're meeting your obligations, and you happen to spend large amounts of time doing it, fantastic - no one can complain! If you're putting in 12 hour days to please a boss, not get fired, or to compete with colleagues, you're playing a totally different and rather unfortunate ball game.
More power to him! I find it hard to get large blocks of quiet time now having three kids, but that's life :-) My dad was a lot like him, though, was coding or hacking around on ham radios most of the day well into his 60s.
I agree with the author that time spent coding isn't a goal in its own right, any more than counting minutes spent at the gym. But if you thrive on programming, it's a net positive in your life, you're meeting your obligations, and you happen to spend large amounts of time doing it, fantastic - no one can complain! If you're putting in 12 hour days to please a boss, not get fired, or to compete with colleagues, you're playing a totally different and rather unfortunate ball game.