Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist, author

Computer programming

I have now kicked the habit, but every so often the craving returns and I must thrust it down and away. But whence the guilt? Isn’t programming useful? In the right hands, yes. But my projects (inventing a word processor, machine translation from one programming language to another, inventing a programming language of my own) could all be done better (and were) by professionals. It was a classic addiction: prolonged frustration, occasionally rewarded by a briefly glowing fix of achievement. It was that pernicious “just one more push to see what’s over the next mountain and then I’ll call it a day” syndrome. It was a lonely vice, interfering with sleeping, eating, useful work and healthy human intercourse. I’m glad it’s over and I won’t start up again. Except … perhaps one day, just a little …