[michaelfeathers]

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?" They didn't. It's easy for people to reach for the term "addiction" when they want to pathologize behavior they don't like.

Fact is, the dopamine cycle is a natural part of life. The problem isn't whether something is addictive or not, it's whether the side effects of that pleasure cycle are harmful. I've had periods in my life where I've spent weeks and months at a time "heads down" in programming. It was always as controllable as it was pleasurable.

[Sirenos]

Except there are legitimate health-risks to playing video games for extended periods, which I believe is what you mean when you say "preferring video games to the outside world". Both are odds with healthy development if allowed without restrictions, but they are hardly equivalent in their effects on the body.

[chrismcb]

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

[goldfeld]

It's controllable until some outside force stops it cold, like what if you got wrist injury in the midst of your coding weeks, or a kid playing videogames daily has her console stop functioning? A lot of anxiety will ensue if you don't have a fallback activity. Weren't you addicted? That said, getting addicted to a purposeful programming project is more beneficial than harmful for me.

[mreiland]

Especially when you consider many of those kids went on to help create a billion dollar industry and make a good life for themselves.