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Comment by 999900000999 | Hacker News Reader

>If you keep playing video games or surfing the Internet for 8 hours a day, it’s almost impossible to develop a passion (or addiction) for anything else.

Stopped reading after this. I became a programmer because after playing video games for 8 hours a day, I wanted to make my own.

And it's led to an amazing career, as long as your hobbies aren't hurting anybody else, feel free to dive into them.

Way too much time is given to judging the personal habits of others, I literally couldn't bother to finish the article after reading that.

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At some point I figured out that solving technical problems is very much like a game. It’s more rewarding because you’re actually accomplishing something (more or less), as opposed to playing a game where it’s just other people making pointless challenges for you to overcome.

That’s a very different thing than people who play games for avoidance reasons. It’s well established that most things are “addictive” when doing that activity so often impacts one’s ability to function in other parts of life, like maintaining a job, relationship, etc.

I don't know, this resonated deeply with me. I had a crippling game addiction that got turned into a very productive programming career, and giving up that dopamine hit was critical in making the change.

I've had this discussion with a few people: and afaict for some folks it's not actually an addiction, but a passion. I think the difference lies in whether you ever have the thought: "I wish I was doing something else right now", and then continued doing what you were doing. It comes down to whether you're in control of your own motivation and time.

Hobbies are great, and video games are a perfectly legitimate hobby, for some. Just like some people can casually do cocaine and not think about it the next day. For others, it's a different story.

> I think the difference lies in whether you ever have the thought: "I wish I was doing something else right now", and then continued doing what you were doing. It comes down to whether you're in control of your own motivation and time

This is a huge problem for people with ADHD. Executive dysfunction makes it incredibly hard to pull away from things you enjoy.

Is this satire?

What makes you think it's satire?

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