From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa)
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2017 12:22:52 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [TUHS] Were all of you.. Hippies?
Message-ID: <20170323162252.273B818C096@mercury.lcs.mit.edu>

    > From: Nick Downing

    > Programming is actually an addiction.

_Can be_ an addition. A lot of people are immune... :-)

    > What makes it addictive to a certain type of personality is that little
    > rush of satisfaction when you try your code and it *works*... ... It was
    > not just the convenience and productivity improvements but that the
    > 'hit' was coming harder and faster.

Joe Weizenbaum wrote about the addiction of programming in his famous book
"Computer Power and Human Reason" (Chapter 4, "Science and the Compulsive
Programmer"). He attributes it to the sense of power one gets, working in a
'world' where things do exactly what you tell them. There might be something
to that, but I suspect your supposition is more likely.

    > This theory is well known to those who design slot machines and other
    > forms of gambling

Oddly enough, he also analogizes to gamblers!

   Noel