The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
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The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
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Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
#2A rather good discussion at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5790508.
Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
#3Could be an interesting road for those trying to design an efficient hiring test for software developers. AFAIK there is no such test yet.
Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
#4A 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.
Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
#5A 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.
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Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
#6What is the neurological explanation for the excessive desire to find the 'optimal' algorithm, language, database ... to solve a problem rather than just solve the problem. Do we just answer 'dopamine' to any question involving behaviour motivation or could seratonin be at play? Anxiety about work product solution not being as good as it could is perhaps different than 'yay it works without an error!'
Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
#7There is some interesting research made into this:
Dietrich, A (2004) The cognitive neuroscience of creativity [1]
Dietrich, A (2004) Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the experience of flow [2]
[1] http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03196731#page-1
[2] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810004000583Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
#8A 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.
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Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
#9A 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.
In the startup world, "Passion" is a shibboleth, or a way of speaking that signals yourself as part of the in crowd. Or, in full startup vernacular, people who are "passionate" about programming are a good "culture fit."
I'm not saying people aren't passionate about programming, but in the context of the startup world, the literal meanings of the words don't matter. The subtext is what's being listened for.
Re: The Effects of Computer Programming on the Brain (2012)
#10This 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 may be to find healthier rewards.
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.
Sometimes it's true that these "addictions" don't perfectly align with business priorities and client demands. Saying that the addiction is "unhealthy" is favoring the perspective of the business. The other perspective is that the individual is in the "wrong" day job.