Lrjtdrver,
I had a F/O not long ago who had been an aircraft mechanic for eight or nine years before a furlough caught up to him. From his description, not a very dedicated mechanic, but a paid one, none the less. He had a pilot certificate, and decided to see if he could make a living at it. He made CFI, and after instructing for a short while, began flying a Caravan doing freight.
I suspect most would agree that a night freight job is a good place learn and get some good experience...but he got out of that as soon as he could, checked the box that said he needed multi time by flying a Seneca on a night run between two points. Three or four hours a night, and in short order, he had his time.
One evening we flew into PHX, and were confronted with some severe weather. We were discussing weather, and out of the blue, he told me he didn't think thunderstorms were a big deal. (This is an ATP). He then told me his one experience with a thunderstorm was flying his Seneca through one, apparently a very, very weak one, and he said "it wasn't that bad."
As we flew together, I found he knew nearly nothing about his craft. Not just the business, but the craft of flying airplanes. The rudder was a foriegn object, and systems and proceedures were nothing more to him than the bare minimum required to pass a checkride. I mean the b-a-r-e minimum. He never studied, he partied every night. He told me on several occasions that he wasn't very serious about flying, that he's probably go find something else to do if he didn't upgrade within a year.
He's not really upgradable. A nice guy, sure enough. But it's just something to do. It's such a foriegn concept, I can't wrap my my mind around why someone would be here, doing this, if they weren't completely absorbed in it. I suppose it's the difference between doing a job, and being a part of the job. (Standing in a FBO years ago, talking about someone, someone commented, "That man doesn't just wear a flight suit..." and someone else in the background called out, "...yeah, he IS a flight suit." Silly, but true).
I've met a few folks lately who have paid their tribute to the effort gods in the business, they're still here, but barely...they keep talking about going elsewhere, about how the business isn't all they thought it might be. Good heavens, folks. Dick Scobee made the comment that it's a crime to get paid for doing something one loves so much. I'm all for getting paid as much as possible, but I don't go to work to collect the paycheck. I go to work to fly the airplane. There's a BIG difference.
I could never afford an airplane...certainly not one like anything I fly or have flown. But for the time I sit in that seat and play pilot, it's my airplane, 100%, and that's like a little one or six or fifteen million dollar bonus, to me. I don't get to take it home, but most don't...and I certainly treat it like it's mine. Treat it like you own it, return it in better shape than you found it...and savor every moment you get it, because it won't last. Gotta land some time.
This discussion is a little like the question regarding one's dream airplane, or favorite aircraft. My answer has never changed...it's the one I'm flying right now. Whatever that may be.
Yours too, I'll wager.
. You're right...there's a lot left to fly, and hardly enough time to try them all. 
