Maybe it's because I'm in the wrong field. I'm not a technology junky. I don't run my own email server, DNS server, and token ring network at home. I'm frankly not interested in how something works unless it's not obvious how it could work. The most valuable people in my company are the ones who know the (to me) excruciating details of every technology we use, the excruciating details of how every part of our system works, the excruciating details of all of our customer relationships, and the excruciating details of exactly which person out of thousands to talk to about every issue.
Frankly, all of that bores me. I like solving logical and algorithmic puzzles. My work provides me with a regular but meager diet of such things. My ability at such stuff makes my code correct, performant, and reliable, and I'm valued for that, but I'd probably be a more productive employee (a better Software Engineer, in other words) if I couldn't write recursive code but could remember the names of all the people I've been in meetings with in the last six months.
Frankly, all of that bores me. I like solving logical and algorithmic puzzles. My work provides me with a regular but meager diet of such things. My ability at such stuff makes my code correct, performant, and reliable, and I'm valued for that, but I'd probably be a more productive employee (a better Software Engineer, in other words) if I couldn't write recursive code but could remember the names of all the people I've been in meetings with in the last six months.