
A tech addict who works in the tech industry - wallflower
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/hes-a-tech-addict-who-works-in-the-tech-industry/
======
AndrewKemendo
I've always wondered if my form of computer use constitutes "addiction."

When I first got a computer in the house, I guess it was '92, I spent an
inordinate amount of time reading stuff on the encyclopedia disks and using
mac paint. When we got the internet in 95 or so, it was the same but on an
entirely different level - geocities sites about everything, car forums,
etc... Fast forward twenty years and I spend an inordinate amount of time on
the internet...reading. Mostly I read science articles, CS/ML papers,
wikipedia articles and watch videos from PBS, nerdwriter, 3blue1brown and the
like, but I also comment here and on twitter, and surf memes on reddit.

I'm certain it's at an "unhealthy" level, but at the same time it _feels_ like
it's productive because it's about stuff I'm interested in and work. I find a
lot of the reading and things consumed are useful and inform my other daily
life and work so when you look at what addiction generally means its
basically: "Negatively Interferes with life."

Maybe it would be considered addictive, but I've built my life around this way
of doing things and it seems to be working out great, I suspect a lot of
techies are like this too.

~~~
BeetleB
>Fast forward twenty years and I spend an inordinate amount of time on the
internet...reading. Mostly I read science articles, CS/ML papers, wikipedia
articles and watch videos from PBS, nerdwriter, 3blue1brown and the like, but
I also comment here and on twitter, and surf memes on reddit.

Here's an exercise that's likely only useful once you are older than a certain
age:

Look at all the time you spent in these activities in your life. Then ask:
What have you achieved by it? Was it worth all that time? If you had spent
only 60% of the time on it, what could you have done with the remaining 40%?
Beyond a certain point, you run into diminishing returns.

I'm an information junkie too, and I occasionally use this to keep me
grounded. I love learning new technologies, but how often do I apply them? How
often is my goal to apply them, but I never start (or complete) because I go
off and learn other things?

When you hit 35 (or 40, or 45) you may start thinking that there's no end to
the knowledge you want to gain, and if you continue as you've always have,
then your rate of progress will be the same till you die. That's quite OK if
there is nothing else in life you want to achieve, but you really should ask
yourself:

Are there things in life (unrelated to learning/reading) I want to do that I
keep neglecting? Am I OK if I never get around to it?

When I think these things, I have a few guidelines:

1\. I don't count knowledge I've gained as progress. I think of how that
knowledge has meaningfully helped me, to the point that it is externally
noticeable. The amount I've learned is no longer a metric for me. It's just
that monkey that's trying to make me feel good. Don't give that monkey a
chance!

2\. When I read a nonfiction book, over 80% is forgotten within months. I
promised myself a few years ago that I'll take notes, and put them on a blog,
so I can review the book later on. This really slowed things down - I probably
read only a fifth of the books I normally would. It is depressing at times,
but so is realising that I've spent a lot of my life reading books that
ultimately were of no use to me, even though they contained a ton of useful
material. In retrospect, it was more entertainment than utility, and fiction
is a much better way to entertain myself. If I just want to chill and relax,
I'll read fiction.

3\. At the beginning of 2018, I made a "Do-not-do" list. I wanted to focus on
a few things, and did not want to get distracted. Most of the "do-not-do" list
was technology related. I picked 1 or 2 that I hoped to do, and promised
myself everything else on the list will be verboten until I accomplish the
ones in the TODO. Sadly, I didn't consult that list throughout the year. I
don't even know how well I did. I did keep the principle in my head, though,
and actively forced myself to stop when tempted often during the year, so I'm
sure I didn't do too poorly.

4\. Keith Ferrazzi has a nice exercise that I never tried, but should. It's
called the Personal Success Wheel. The basic idea is to separate your life
into a bunch of categories. Examples: Professional growth, relationships,
intellectual stimulation, physical health, spirituality, etc.

Then figure out how much time you want to spend on each. Assuming disjoint
sets, the fractions should add up to 100%. For each category, split it up into
concrete activities. Now comes the challenging part: Say you put 30% for
intellectual stimulation. In a given month, that's 9 days. If you look at all
the concrete activities you've listed for intellectual stimulation (e.g. learn
Haskell, read tech blog, etc), how many have you listed? Say you've listed 9.
So that means you can spend on average one day a month on that activity. That
probably won't sound like much to you. Using his "wheel" keeps you honest
about how much time you can spend on an activity, and how thin you'll end up
being spread out. Likely then you'll prioritise and simply cut out lower value
time gobblers. It's probably better to spend 3 or 4 days a month on something
than one day.

I wrote the above from my memory, but here's a link from his site (I did not
reread to see how well it matches my memory):

[http://blog.mygreenlight.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/12/6-St...](http://blog.mygreenlight.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/12/6-Steps-to-Set-Your-Goals-For-Success-Refocus-Your-
Life-Goals-and-Your-Career-Goals-Today.pdf)

~~~
AndrewKemendo
Yea I'm 35 and I'm basically trying to figure this out.

It's hard because I end up using a lot of my casual reading in life and at
work, so in that sense it has meaningfully helped.

So I think it comes down to deciding to make some some kind of life
optimization around a bigger goal. I'm not sure I want to make that right now
because I enjoy the information binging for it's own sake. I just did a
startup where I was definitely not doing any info binging, and am in a cool
down phase so I'm doing it more.

It's a good thought and an interesting approach though so thanks for writing
that all out.

~~~
BeetleB
>It's hard because I end up using a lot of my casual reading in life and at
work, so in that sense it has meaningfully helped.

So do I. However, ask yourself the following:

1\. (For work) Do your peers who perform as well or better than you do spend
as much as time as you do learning?

2\. If you were to randomly throw away 30% of the knowledge you've read
(keeping in mind you probably didn't retain it anyway) how much would it hurt
your work/life?

3\. (For work) Do people in other disciplines (or even ones not too far
removed from yours) do fine/well at work without putting in all the effort you
have?

I'm a SW developer, and mostly self-taught. I studied engineering in school
and took only two programming courses, and mostly non-computer related
courses. I do well because I have strong interests in computers. So I can
certainly relate. Yet, all that time and knowledge has not given me a
particularly great advantage. The idea isn't to stop doing it all together. It
is that you're likely well beyond the peak benefit of learning - and the
limiting factor in career/life are things you may be neglecting. You can
probably afford to cut back some percentage on the knowledge and focus on
other things.

And of course: If you value learning that much, there's nothing wrong with
dedicating your life to it. I love it a lot, but I also do have other
interests and goals that tend to get sabotaged. I know that if I wake up
tomorrow at 55 with only my knowledge to show for it, I'll be very unhappy.

------
analyst74
I find the definition of addiction by mainstream media really weird too.

I was addicted to games at one point, then to partying, then to soccer.

Partying 3 times a week has affected other areas in my life a lot more than
gaming, my life basically disappeared outside of partying/recovery; and soccer
has lead to many injuries, some permanent.

Yet I don't see people calling out people addicted to partying, or to sports.
It's almost as if those editors/writers are seeing the world through their own
limited/biased lenses.

~~~
quicklime
There is definitely a concept of "overtraining" in sport, and people do talk
about it being caused by an addiction to exercise (e.g.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining#Cause](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining#Cause),
[https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/the-dangers-of-
exercise-a...](https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/the-dangers-of-exercise-
addiction/)). It's a problem because it results in a lack of progress (e.g.
it's hard to build fitness/strength when overtrained), and it increases a
person's susceptibility to injuries.

Strava even has a built in feature to warn users if they appear to be
overtraining (I think you need a heart rate monitor though, and possibly the
paid version too).

But I would guess that this isn't well-known amongst the general public, since
it doesn't affect much of the population - most people live sedentary lives
and overtraining/exercise addiction is only a problem for a subset of active
people.

I presume by "partying" you mean "drinking", otherwise there wouldn't be much
recovery involved. In which case that's an addition that is well-known and
often talked about.

~~~
paulcole
While a fashionable self-diagnosis, actual overtraining is essentially
impossible for the average person to do. They’ll end up with soreness or other
minor injuries that will prevent exercise before actual overtraining sets in.

~~~
tjoff
What definition are you using? Wikipedia:

 _Overtraining occurs when a person exceeds their body 's ability to recover
from strenuous exercise._

This is not hard to do. The average person will recover at a slower pace than
an athlete. Many dedicated people underestimate how much food is required
(very common in professional athletes too). But more common among average
people I'd guess is overtraining certain parts of your body, because it isn't
hard at all.

~~~
cc81
I think he is using a definition closer to the one used in this paper:

>Athletes experience minor fatigue and acute reductions in performance as a
consequence of the normal training process. When the balance between training
stress and recovery is disproportionate, it is thought that overreaching and
possibly overtraining may develop. However, the majority of research that has
been conducted in this area has investigated overreached and not overtrained
athletes. Overreaching occurs as a result of intensified training and is often
considered a normal outcome for elite athletes due to the relatively short
time needed for recovery (approximately 2 weeks) and the possibility of a
supercompensatory effect. As the time needed to recover from the overtraining
syndrome is considered to be much longer (months to years), it may not be
appropriate to compare the two states. It is presently not possible to discern
acute fatigue and decreased performance experienced from isolated training
sessions, from the states of overreaching and overtraining. This is partially
the result of a lack of diagnostic tools, variability of results of research
studies, a lack of well controlled studies and individual responses to
training.

[https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00007256-200434140...](https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00007256-200434140-00003)

So it is not the normal aches or reduced performance you get from training a
lot in a short time, sleeping too little or anything like that.

------
navs
This may sound silly but I think I have my first Macbook to thank for removing
me from the world of addictive gaming.

If I wasn't gaming, I was reading or watching movies. Like the person in this
article, I would ignore friends and largely spent much of my childhood and
teenage years alone. It's hurt my ability to relate and converse with people.
I don't know if it's the main reason for my depression and social anxiety
diagnosis but there does seem to be a correlation if not causation.

I ultimately stopped my serious gaming when I moved completely into the Apple
ecosystem. Nothing ran well and those that did weren't in the genre I was
interested in. It was a roadblock.

That didn't do anything for the other aspects of internet consumption (which
I'm still working on) but one down, a few more to go.

~~~
j45
This is a nice subtle side effect of owning Apple.

\- non tech friends stop asking you for tech advice once you have a MacBook
because people assume you're dumb as a door knob carrying apple products.

\- you rarely from them once you advise someone to buy an apple product
because things generally work in the ecosystem.

~~~
navs
And let's not forget that Apple premium leaving you with little more left to
spend.

~~~
j45
No doubt. Current price increases may be unsustainable.

------
blahblahblogger
Someone else said it's an addiction if it interferes with your life.

But for me, it's all my life is really.

I don't have friends, relationships, etc. and haven't since I was a teenager
(I'm in my thirties now). As such I don't have hobbies or whatever.

I just go to work (programmer) and come home and browse reddit, hn, youtube,
etc. until the next day.

~~~
ficklepickle
I can relate. I was in a similar place. Just know it can get better.

Best thing I ever did was find a therapist that I really clicked with. The
accountability and lack of judgement really helped me make progress.

And a bit of progress can be really encouraging.

Support is really important. I wouldn't have made it on my own. My email is in
my profile, so please don't hesitate to use it.

~~~
m90
Before prescribing something that is "better" you might want to find out if
the OP considers their situation worth improving. I can't find any hints on if
they are happy or unhappy about it.

I get that you are acting in good faith, but at the same time I get the
feeling you consider the OP to be in "a sad place" based on nothing but social
norms.

~~~
jacobush
based on biological norms - humans are not wired for that kind of life.

~~~
m90
I wouldn't be wired for that kind of life either, but the only thing that
allows me to make that statement is my own experience as an individual. Which
does not apply to anyone else but me.

50 years ago many people would have told you that homosexuality is not
something people are wired for based on biological norms. Luckily, this has
changed.

Maybe you have never made the experience yourself, but being told you need to
change something about yourself that you are happy with just because it is not
"normal" is a pretty terrible thing.

~~~
jacobush
Yeah, I don't want to come across like that.

------
lordnacho
Tech addiction is one of my biggest worries as a parent. I spent a huge amount
of time playing Civilization, Doom, FIFA, and so on. Years later I spend a lot
of time on WoW.

Nowadays games are even more addictive. You can play online. You can customize
your character. And there's now 25 more years of advances in discovering what
makes people hooked. I'm already seeing my kid's friends playing Fortnite all
the time, and they're only 6 years old.

Plus now you need a computer to study. And the computer is now the best way to
learn useful things as well. So I'm gonna end up trying to show the kid all
sorts of things that I as a parent think are good for him, but the same device
can be used to waste his whole life.

The thing is I've seen the computer lead people to both great things, or
complete failure. Some kids get one and can code before university, they know
how to find things out with it, and they can organise their lives with it.
Others have literally lost their futures due to being unable to pull their
eyes away from the screen.

~~~
MuffinFlavored
Look at how much you gamed, and look how you turned out. Would that be ok for
your children?

~~~
sl1ck731
In a similar boat as the parent as far as turning out alright. But in college
I saw more people who gamed as much as I did flunk out than people who made it
through with me.

The games we used to play had some degree of extension like modding or
scripting that at least caused me to branch out. The same can't be said of the
current generation who will grow up with games like Fortnite that have no
depth outside of the game itself.

I guess there is minecraft but I don't know how that is doing and will
probably be an exception not the rule in the future.

------
cdelsolar
Yoshi's Story was not for the Super Nintendo. It was an N64 game that was far
inferior to Yoshi's Island.

~~~
mercer
Yoshi's Island is one of the best platformers ever, and I still get the music
in my head regularly. The most recent game that that had a similar, rare
combination of great gameplay and amazing soundtrack has been Celeste.

