In both cases there were moments where I even felt a raging passion for it. For programming it was making a computer graphics engine and for going it's whenever me and the DJ aligned musically which put me into a trance and helped me to dance so much that I was basically working out.
Fun fact: immersive multimedia is the underlying "passion factor" of going out and programming. Both activities sometimes give trance-like states or feelings of wonder and other magical feelings.
> Night club experiences vary significantly depending on what club you go to and what people you go with.
This. I used to experiment by going out alone, sometimes (15 times in total).
Things get a lot more fun when 30 British tourists take you under their wing, because they like your openness and disarming demeanour. It doesn't even take much social skills to be honest. I was sober the whole time.
Or when you meet a group of 20 Spanish people (learning Spanish while slightly intoxicated, haha) and learn some Spanish Dance moves while meeting a future Dutch girlfriend.
I love Amsterdam :)
Or (I'll stop after this one) learn to fire dance in Thailand (without fire) and actually learn a basic trick! Everyone, including myself, was surprised I was capable of any form of movement let alone coordinated successful one. We were all super wasted.
But I also had nights out alone where I'd wallflower, that wasn't a lot of fun. I never knew up front if I'd wallflower or get some epic adventure as my social skills and pro-activity have a high variance. In most cases, I had epic adventures though.
And the same is true for when you go out with a group of people that you know. I did that a whole lot more. Going out with friends can actually be quite tricky in order to get a fun party result. I found that going out alone was easier.
Your typical night club in the heart of the city filled with drunk people (overflowing from bars) is not the same as the more "upscale" nightclubs on the edges of the city.
The former case is a miserable experience and I agree with you, but the latter can be enjoyable.