I didn't quite have the courage to drop out like you did, but I've noticed a similar effect since graduating. I finally get to work on things that I find interesting, and really play around with cool stuff. My employer is practically an MIT spinoff: co-founded by 2 MIT professors, with 3 MIT grads as new hires. And then I finally have no homework and can work on stuff I find interesting on my own time. I'm free of FictionAlley, with the new system in service (if a little buggy), my Haskell tutorial is nearly done, and I'm hoping to start on a new programming language shortly.