Gaming, I go impotent after one hour — call it cyber impotence. Coding, not at all. Eighteen hours straight, no problem.
Same screen, same chair. Where’s the difference? Games are consumption: the goals were designed by someone else, the rewards written by someone else; you’re grinding levels in a world somebody else owns. After an hour, the dopamine bill is settled, and what’s left is emptiness. Code is production: the problem is yours, the solution is yours, and the world now contains one more small thing because of you. Eighteen hours isn’t enough, because behind every solution stands the next problem.
Flow isn’t mysticism. It’s a byproduct of ownership. What you own feeds you longer. What you rent empties you out.
Someone will say games train reflexes and strategy. They do. But a consumption skill’s growth curve runs for an hour; a production skill’s runs for a decade. Which curve you choose decides what’s in your hands when you’re old.
So to choose what you should work on, skip the career assessments. One test suffices: when you finish, do you want to go again, or do you want to collapse?
