The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)

#21

Post by wordbank » Sun, Sep 06, 2015, 7:13 PM UTC

ching_wow_ka wrote: post #4

A quote from someone who commented on the page: "When the programming addicts on Hacker News write about programming addiction, they almost never call it programming addiction. Usually they call it being passionate about programming. And in their opinion, programmers who are not passionate about programming are bad programmers." Not saying I agree, but it could be the start of an interesting discussion.

I'm not passionate about programming at all. It's just the best way to make money from home.

But I keep my skill growing anyway because I'd like to produce better software products. Development is a mess already, it will be better to prevent further complications.

Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)

#22

Post by contingencies » Sun, Sep 06, 2015, 9:24 PM UTC

jasode wrote: post #10

This article isn't really about the " effects of programming on the brain. " Instead, the author has a pre-determined value judgement of what is a "good" or "bad" allocation of priorities. From that premise, he works backwards to a observation that coding can be addictive. This addictiveness is then judged as "bad": >someone who may be suffering from what I can only really describe as coding addiction, the solution m…

That was exactly what I wanted to say, if in more words: too many simple dichotomies.

Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)

#23

Post by CmonDev » Mon, Sep 07, 2015, 8:12 AM UTC

ching_wow_ka wrote: post #4

A quote from someone who commented on the page: "When the programming addicts on Hacker News write about programming addiction, they almost never call it programming addiction. Usually they call it being passionate about programming. And in their opinion, programmers who are not passionate about programming are bad programmers." Not saying I agree, but it could be the start of an interesting discussion.

When they say bad programmers they simply mean not as good as them, which is a mean but true and fair thing to say.

Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)

#24

Post by chrismcb » Tue, Sep 08, 2015, 8:46 AM UTC

michaelfeathers wrote: post #11

ching_wow_ka wrote: post #4

A quote from someone who commented on the page: "When the programming addicts on Hacker News write about programming addiction, they almost never call it programming addiction. Usually they call it being passionate about programming. And in their opinion, programmers who are not passionate about programming are bad programmers." Not saying I agree, but it could be the start of an interesting discussion.

I don't like seeing the language of addiction and recovery expanded to new areas like this. It's a way of putting moral frame on behavior that can be healthy and enriching. I first felt this way when I saw "addiction" applied as a label to kids who prefered playing video games to going outside. My response was "did they call it addiction before video games when kids played with blocks and action figures indoors?" The…

When you play with blocks and action figures, you typically don't need to play "just one more" several dozen times in a row until the sun starts to rise. While I don't always do this programming, there are times when I fixed a bug or added a feature... And I have to do one more quick one before turning in. Several bug fixes later and I realize I have to get up in a few hours for my real job. I'm not saying it us addiction, but there is definitely something to playing a game that I didn't get playing with Legos... Of course I did the same reading... Just one more chapter

Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)

#25

Post by copsarebastards » Tue, Sep 08, 2015, 3:11 PM UTC

jasode wrote: post #10

This article isn't really about the " effects of programming on the brain. " Instead, the author has a pre-determined value judgement of what is a "good" or "bad" allocation of priorities. From that premise, he works backwards to a observation that coding can be addictive. This addictiveness is then judged as "bad": >someone who may be suffering from what I can only really describe as coding addiction, the solution m…

> For some people, the healthiest reward is the coding. For others, it's working on solving a 300-year old math problem, or struggling for hours and days to find the perfect word for a line in a poem, or a sentence in a novel. There are no "healthier" rewards than those intellectual gymnastics.

More to the point, there aren't any other rewards than dopamine. Dopamine is literally what a reward is in the brain. Unless you're just never going to do anything rewarding, this is inescapable.

> someone who may be suffering from what I can only really describe as coding addiction, the solution may be to find healthier rewards.

If your definition of addiction is dopaminergenic action, then you're simply proposing another addiction here, because you're just proposing a different dopaminergenic action besides coding here.