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Programming Can Ruin Your Life: A Fantastic Blog Essay on the Mind of a Coder
Armando:
… Yes, computers in general appear to facilitate and encourage one’s tendency to perfectionism, solitude, obsession, intellectualization and “abstractionism” (?) (and it certainly does with me). They provide the perfect substratum for the emergence of complex virtual neo-realities in which one can live parallel lifes. Lives in which parameters are much more easily controlled and (re)composed (to echo some of what App and mouser said)... as Nelson Goodman would probably put it. Computers are the perfect constructivvist tools!
If Abelard and Eloisa could intensely live parts of their love and tragedy through letters, how much more intensely can our contemporaries live their obsessions, career passions or even entire lives through computers (networked, preferably…)? If some of the problems of computerized “virtual occupations” resemble many solitary and conceptual/abstract endeavors, their power and abstractness are reinforced by something which never ever has had the same amplitude : their super interactive potential and, nowadays, their precise and sophisticated sensory simulation/stimulation.
Armando:
Ok... I omitted aomething from my last post. Seemed too long. But what the heck. (I'll shut up soon...)
So... Yes. I was just going to say that with these highly interactive and rule-bound machines (ahem, called computers?), the possibility of loosing touch with some important, healthy, sometimes “ambiguuous”, and more concrete aspects of our individuality (biological and psychological aspects : our muscular and cardiovascular health, our very refined sensory perceptions — and not only the 5 or 6 main ones! —, our essential emotional characteristics and highly evolved affective components....) and “socioculturality” (complex direct human interactions, etc.), the possibility of disturbing the optimal organic equilibium which constitutes the basis on which our great conceptual mind and virtual worlds have been built, the dangers of being hypnotized and confused by virtual problems and goals are… real. And so, yess, as a consequence, these imbalance will/might induce specific mental/physical habits and “infect” (a bit excessive, maybe) both our psyche and biology! Isn't the article is on the right track (albeit a bit extreme?) when it says :
Sadly, no one ever tells you about the ways in which it will adversely affect your life. The physical effects are obvious. You’ll spend most of your time sitting, probably in an uncomfortable chair that doesn’t promote good posture. You’ll fuel yourself with food that is readily available, meaning it’s more than likely processed and full of sugar and you’ll likely choose either coffee or soda to stave off the drowsiness. A coworker once remarked, “If it doesn’t come out of a vending machine, programmers don’t eat it.”
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Or
The application of programming specific processes and habits to the everyday is where peril lies. The same traits that make you a great programmer can make you an awkward, misunderstood and miserable human being.
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I might be going off on a tangent here -- yes I am, all things considered -- but maps, representations, mimesis however interactive and realistic they are, are by essence always flawwd, filled with “lies” and reductions (even if reductions are subtle and hard to see, they’re there), and too much of that solitude and abstraction, illusion, can have other detrimental consequences than the one already mentionnd and lead to dissociative or even fusion-like pathologies — like neurosis or psychosis (especially on people who are prone to what has been described as… solitude, obsession, perfectionism etc.).
This is what needs to be avoided. Some kind ofd balance must be found. Because the possibility of developing an addiction to these incomplete (but somewhat more controllable and “perfect”) computer interactions, etc. seem very real (…or are they?). I do know programmers who are in a state of complete obsession, rarely seeing the sunlight and having real human interactions. I do know mathematicians who are like that too, yes I do! Some are okay with it, some suffer from these obsessions.
Anyway. This is not to say that computers are bad, but that they DO seem to appeal to certain type of people and that they DO reinforce both certain innate and cultural caracteritics. But let’s be fair here : it’s not the computer’s fault, or the programming activities’ fault : it’s a multiperspectivist problem which probably emerges when the right (or wrong) combination of personality/cultural background/software/computer… hhappens.
There is no high in the world quite like the one you get when you think you have won that programmer vs machine game, -app103
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I can assure you that there are other pretty cool highs… But, yes... how would I/we know ? :D
I should add (again? have I already said that....) that most things described in the article could be applied (and not even metaphorically!) to many artists I know (writers and musicians, mostly) and many scientists (at the PhD level — and, yes, some are mathematicians!). People involved in solitary inventor-creator jobs (artistic or scientific). One does not need to be a programmer to share this mindset, this love for problem solving, this crave for perfect solutions etc. (all of that in some kind of abstract/virtual world).
One of my most common strategies is something like "programming in my head" -- if i get an idea for an algorithm or program that i'd like to write, i can often stave off my desires to actually program it (which would take weeks) by allowing myself to sit down and sketch out the program or just think about it while falling asleep, and try to satisfy the crave that way -mouser (September 14, 2007, 07:09 AM)
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Actually, I know many many creators/inventors who work that way. As a musician/actor/director, I’ve always been working like that. I find it an excellent strategy to achieve more, but I'm not sure if it's that healthy. Is it realltya matte r of choice anyway... The very famous piano player and über genius Glenn Gould used to work like that too — to some extent —, and to internalize everything.
Another thing which i do now and i love, was inspired by the GTD discussions we've had, which is to write down all ideas.. basically to offload them from my mind onto an organized collection. That seems to greatly relieve the need that the brain might otherwise have to keep it active in my mind. -mouser (September 14, 2007, 07:09 AM)
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GTD has really helped me with that too. I’ve always kind off been doing that, but the GTD system brought a bit more clarity to the process.
OK… sorry guyt for that long post. Procrastination and computer intoxication I guess.
CWuestefeld:
I don't think that anyone so far has suggested that all of this might actually be a good thing. While it's a necessity for programming, isn't the ability to systematically decompose a problem, or to plan a coordinated sequence of steps to solve it, valuable in the "real world"? Honestly, when I think of how many people seem to act like sheep, taking the whole world at face value without questioning "why?", I'm now thinking that we'd be better off if more of them were programmers. :o
nudone:
good point. anything that suggests a reduction of social interaction is automatically considered a bad thing (well, i suppose research shows it's unhealthy to be unsociable - i wonder if any research has been done to show how wonderful being a loner is).
Armando:
i wonder if any research has been done to show how wonderful being a loner is).
-nudone (September 15, 2007, 01:15 AM)
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Some people are happier alone (i usually am, but I NEED to find the right balance between loneliness, and social life -- maybe 70/30, or something like that). But, as Mihaly Csiksczentmnihalyi and others report, findings and studies suggest that, IN GENERAL, people get more depressed when they are alone, and they are more lively and happier when they rejoin the company of others.
As you know, it's not a simple matter you can reduce to alone=bad. It is possible for many people to learn to enjoy solitude and it is a very useful aptitude, but... specialist agree to say that, again IN GENERAL, it is an acquired taste, and it is a function of your unique biology, psychology, sociocultural and immediate context. Csiksczentmnihalyi actually considers that, in the long run being able to enjoy happiness in solitude is quite a useful skill to acquire is the ability to tolerate solitude, and to even enjoy it. For a solitary person, I'd say that it is also useful to acquire the tast of being with others!
Here's an small excerpt of Finding Flow :
"Alone a person generally reports low happiness, aversive motivation, low concentration, apathy, and an entire string of other negative states such as passivity, loneliness, detachment, and low self-esteem. Being alone affects most those individuals who have the fewest resources: those who have been unable to get an education, who are poor, single, or divorced. Pathological states are often invisible as long as the person is with others; they take effect mostly when we are alone. The moods that people diagnwosed with chronic depression or with eating disorders experience are indistinguishable from those of healthy people—as long as they are in companyw and doing something that requires concentration. But when they are alone with nothing to do, their minds begin to be occupied by depressing thoughts, and their consciousness becomes entropic. This is also true, to a less pronounced extent, of everyone else. The reason is that when we have to interact with another person, even a stranger, our attention becomes structured by external demands. [...] By contrast, when we are alone with nothing to do there is no reason to concentrate, and what happens then is that the mind begins to unravel, and soon finds something to worry about." (p. 41-42)
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"Everyday life is defined not only by what we do, but also by who we are with. Our actions and feelings are always influenced by other people, whether they are present or not." (p.13)
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"The strong effects of companionship on the quality of experience suggest that investing psychic energy in relationships is a good way to improve life. Even the passive, superficial conversations at a neighborhood bar can stave off depression. But for real growth, it is necessary to find people whose opinions are interesting and whose conversation is stimulating." (p.43)
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Of course, some other questions that come to mind are : what about internet chatting, forums, etc.? Anyway, like I said, it's a complex subject...
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