Do you think programming can be an addiction? Maybe if you’re doing it even when you don’t even have a job as a programmer. But you might feel the need to make software. It could be like OCD where you are compelled to put right bugs in software. Just the same kind of addiction when you play Tetris and you have to make all the rows nice and neat.
People are always looking for the next best computer language. Or that next best thing that will make the internet better. Or the next best social network. But if we all stepped back and turned our computers off. Would we wonder what we’d been doing?
You ever get that feeling after a 10 hour coding session, you look up and think. What am I doing?!!! Or is that normal at the end of a days work?
I think what I would be doing if I wasn’t addicted to programming…
Well look at it this way…you’re being productive and creating something tangible while doing something you enjoy. You weren’t spending ten hours playing an mmo or sitting on the couch slamming beer while binge watching Netflix.
Like Ryiah said, anything has the potential to be addictive. But addiction is a word that usually carries a negative connotation and is usually reserved to describe conditions that are a detriment to a person. Unless you feel programming is somehow becoming a detriment to your life and well being–I wouldn’t worry about it.
Yes. I just finished telling off my commercial/industrial design/sculptural arts agent who told me I need to drop the game engine stuff. “Dude…eff you… The best and the brightest artists and musicians use game engine tech because it is math and art and physics and sound and music.(thinking about many, many of you here on these forums).It satisfies their inner needs and intelligence. The greats if they were alive would be playing with game engines. You telling me da Vinci wouldn’t be putting his art into game engines and coding it to move around and creating physic and dynamic sims. The great scientist/artist types of the 1800’s…They would be on it.” He got a frikkin’ earful…I actually cussed alot more than the above pseudo-quote. Try telling a heroin addict they gotta stop…LOL. Ticked me off. Clownage control freak just don’t get it. Well back to my game coding…heh…after a cruise thru here to calm me down:)
I literally start to DT if I can’t program, I’ve lost a lot of friends because of it, I have almost no social life anymore, it’s by choice.
I could easily chug down beer and moonshine and get where? More in debt lol.
I know my chances of ever hitting it big are slim to none. But I think my odds of getting rich are more higher
staying at home programming not spending any money lol.
I used to would wake up, get a 24 pack, by the end of the after noon I’d get a quart of moonshine and another 24 pack for me an my buddies. Talking about wasteful spending!
Needless to say, I don’t have anymore friends LOL.
This is sort of a QFT.
Addicting or not, there is one major player/key/requirement for success, and that is work. No one wants to admit it, and people are quick to assume successful others were magically granted their success, but that is not the case.
Even the simplest of phone games took effort and work. Maybe not much time if the programmer had experience, but that experience was gained through work.
Motivation is not as powerful as obsession, so get programming!
“Addiction is a state characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences. It can be thought of as a disease or biological process leading to such behaviors.”
… hmm sounds like masturbation, err drugs…
… with that in mind… anything can be addicting, so yeah programming CAN be an addiction.
Sure it can be addicting. Like @Heu noted any activity that you gain satisfaction, enjoyment from can become an addiction. And in that is a lot of power if taken advantage of. For example, it’d be even better to be addicted to completing projects. Addicted to programming isn’t bad though just as there are people addicted to 3D modeling or free-hand art. The only downside is you can spend all of your time on these activities and never complete a game.
I think it becomes an addiction when you’re writing a program that helps you write programs that automates your programming. Luckily I haven’t got that far but I know people who are getting that way. When what you’re doing has drifted away from your original goal maybe it’s time to rethink.
Programming can be a “delight” if:
You have a good language. That compiles fast. That doesn’t have bugs. That is interactive.
And it can be a depressing pain in the behind if:
You have a bloated language. That compiles slowly. That works differently on different machines. And is a black box that you don’t know what goes on inside. Then you might as well be doing witchcraft.
Mainly because in the first case your thinking about your goal which is fun and exciting. Whereas in the second case your just thinking about programming.
Also, it might be an addiction if you’re writing topics about programming addiction on forums! heh. / Ah well back to work!
/ Ah well back to work!