Re:What it feels like to be in the zone as a programmer
by DutchKevv on Sunday August 20, 2017 @03:35PM
(#15059898)
Same here.. I made a comment somewhere saying the same as you, but I feel like I'm in the middle of the thing your looking back at.
I really do feel like a junky, that has found a pile of whatever it needs and the world encourages me to get better in 'using' and keeps paying me more to get higher and higher.. it's such a strange 'unethical' feeling.. I'm programming for about 8 years now in full throttle, and it keeps feeling stranger.. I'm somehow glad others experience it also...
Re:What it feels like to be in the zone as a programmer
by sherkaner on Monday August 21, 2017 @07:52AM
(#15063849)
I'm completely opposite. I was playing chess from the childhood, and started programming only in the university. As a result, I'm addicted to chess, but not to programming. It is ridiculously hard for me to get in a zone while working, while I can play chess non-stop for hours and hours without noticing the time flying by. I'd love to reverse chess and programming....
It was actually something that as of late has started to disturb me: I notice that I live for moments like that, when I get in the zone and the whole world melts away. I feel like a junkie seeking a high, and thinking back on my youth and how destructive I was to my body and my interpersonal relationships in pursuit of "code all the time," I wonder whether that analogy is even more accurate than I'd like to believe.
I look back on my life and wonder if I've actually been a lifelong addict who is lucky enough to have a productive output of his addiction rather than a functioning member of society.
I don't know if others feel or have felt this way, or if it's just a phase that I'm going through. But these are my thoughts at the moment.