Watching the presentation "Your Brain On Porn" on the web something occurred to me. If this whole mechanism of craving the dopamine works to develop our addiction why can't it work to develop something more useful, less damaging or at least less embarrassing? And this "new addiction" maybe can replace addiction to porn?
Just bear with me. After all I'm an old guy, who've been with this addiction way before there was such thing as internet.
I'll start with a little part of my story.
The nature of my work requires an access to internet. Just simply being anywhere near the computer can trigger the response in me that leads to porno sites and so on. You can imagine that sitting in my cubicle and doing something that is not even remotely looks like coding could not last very long.
One thing I've noticed is that trigger gets even more unbearable, if I get frustrated with something, which is the part of my job just as much as coding.
So what I tried is to allow myself to do something other than surfing porno sites. I start playing online games like minesweeper and chess. I understood very well that chess board is not looks much closer to coding than pictures of naked women, but at least it is less embarrassing.
If you read (or listen to) "Brain on porn", you probably understand that the mechanism of getting hooked is not different whether it is someone's butt, boobs or pawns and rooks. So is it possible to purposely get hooked on something more useful?
What I'm proposing on this tread is:
1 To come up with ideas what one can get hooked on. Think of something wider than my particular situation, think of anyone, of yourself, of someone younger than us, but kids on other sections of this site, anyone really. Maybe not even necessary porn addiction... food, exercise, anything...
2 To get hooked we'll need a mechanism. Any addiction needs a "hook". What is an attraction that will promise endorphin and therefore causes to produce dopamin?
3 Since we are developing an addiction, we probably want to control it, so it would not control us. What would you propose as a "break" mechanism?
4 Think of other questions you might have around this idea
Just bear with me. After all I'm an old guy, who've been with this addiction way before there was such thing as internet.
I'll start with a little part of my story.
The nature of my work requires an access to internet. Just simply being anywhere near the computer can trigger the response in me that leads to porno sites and so on. You can imagine that sitting in my cubicle and doing something that is not even remotely looks like coding could not last very long.
One thing I've noticed is that trigger gets even more unbearable, if I get frustrated with something, which is the part of my job just as much as coding.
So what I tried is to allow myself to do something other than surfing porno sites. I start playing online games like minesweeper and chess. I understood very well that chess board is not looks much closer to coding than pictures of naked women, but at least it is less embarrassing.
If you read (or listen to) "Brain on porn", you probably understand that the mechanism of getting hooked is not different whether it is someone's butt, boobs or pawns and rooks. So is it possible to purposely get hooked on something more useful?
What I'm proposing on this tread is:
1 To come up with ideas what one can get hooked on. Think of something wider than my particular situation, think of anyone, of yourself, of someone younger than us, but kids on other sections of this site, anyone really. Maybe not even necessary porn addiction... food, exercise, anything...
2 To get hooked we'll need a mechanism. Any addiction needs a "hook". What is an attraction that will promise endorphin and therefore causes to produce dopamin?
3 Since we are developing an addiction, we probably want to control it, so it would not control us. What would you propose as a "break" mechanism?
4 Think of other questions you might have around this idea
