Programmer Junk Food

It feels good.

It hits the spot of cravings and immediate gratification.

It might even leave you on some kind of high - before the inevitable crash.

And it’s almost valueless in terms of real nutrition and has bad long term effects.

Programmer Junk Food fills up your time and attention without building meaningful skills. It leaves you feeling informed, entertained - makes you feel like you are getting smarter.

Really it’s given you very little lasting value.

The nutritionally dense alternative isn't as immediately satisfying. Vegetables don't trigger the same dopamine response as sugar. Reading technical documentation isn't as engaging as watching someone sprint through a coding tutorial.

Programmer Junk Food provides the dopamine hit of progress without the nutritional value of actual skill development.

But just as real junk food leaves you hungry an hour later, Programmer Junk Food leaves your skills stagnant despite feeling like you've spent hours "learning”.

The cost isn't just wasted time – it's the erosion of fundamental skills:

• the ability to focus deeply.
• to parse dense documentation.
• to think through complex problems without constant stimulation.
• to form your own opinions, ideas and develop your own taste.
• to engage meaningfully in technical discussions with your peers.

Real learning isn't passive and comfortable.

It requires work from your mind, just as digesting nutritionally dense food requires work from your body.

Learning requires struggle, focus, and the willingness to be bored sometimes. Reading actual books and papers. Studying documentation. It also requires putting the work in, doing the reps: writing code to explore approaches and find solutions.

And just like exercise and eating nutritionally dense food, it gets easier the more you do of it. Staying focussed becomes easier. You become more effective at reading technical documentation, which turn makes you more effective at writing technical documentation.

Allocate your learning time and calories appropriately.