When what you need to get done is really tricky and no one else can do it, having a programming-addict or two hanging around might not be a bad idea. The problems I've seen come from treating them as what management want them to be, instead of realizing that they play a different game and come with different compromises. There are also chess-addicts, running-addicts, all sorts of addicts. No one ever got really good at anything without being slightly addicted.