I think your comment deserves many more replies. It is taken completely granted that this is the case. I don't think it is good at all but that is the mindset.
Writing code every day doesn't necessarily make you a workaholic. Working on code all day, every day might make you one though.
What John is doing is akin to what an artist would do to hone their skills. Practice. Every great singer practices often. Every master of a musical instrument. And for programmers, it's a similar thing - there's no substitute for writing code.
His approach is to write something meaningful every day, but it shouldn't be interpreted as 'let the code writing take over your life every day'
