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by Weryj 45 days ago
I thought about it a little deeper and I think software development has always had the addictive tendency. That hunt for the solution to the problem, has a rush when you complete it.

It’s just that the rush is more frequent, addiction intensity scales with dose and frequency.

2 comments

Don't know man. I'm also neurodivergent, subclinical in many ways at least on many things (I use science and self-development to keep myself remarkably stable for my neurotype). My issue with programming has always been that it feels so lonely and you get to care about things that no one else seems to really care about. So it removes one further from the general public.

I feel with AI agents, the pendulum shifted back a bit.

I do get what you're saying that software development has an addictive tendency as 20% of the time I am like that as well (and then I'm the "eat, sleep, code" kind). But at the same time, it's just not true for everyone.

I guess what it is: in order for software development to have an addictive tendency for one, certain conditions need to be met beforehand.

> has always had the addictive tendency

If you meant just your own experience by the way then I misread your comment. Since it reads to me as if you're trying to generalize it a bit.

I was generalising a bit, but in a way where only a subset would agree. It's all anecdotal and very personal.
I think I might be going through withdrawal because I feel like I rarely get that fun feeling anymore with coding :(

It can be gratifying to get shit done but I love the feeling of coming up with a great reusable component and then making an entire app out of it