July 25, 2000

Addictive personalities

badger: You should be happy with the nokia monitor. I got the 445xi+ a few months ago and absolutely love it. 1600 x 1200 is no problem, although the monitor can do better, I think I'd go blind if I went any higher.

Do addictive personalities do addictive things all the time, or just with certain things? For instance, after getting the new everclear cd last week, I've probably listened to it 30+ times, playing certain songs many times in a row. Is it just that this CD happens to fit my mood when I'm coding, or am I getting addicted? (Everclear: you can't stop!) Gaming is similar: how many person-hours of folks on advogato are getting sucked up by diablo 2?

This crossed my mind last night when a commercial came on talking about a special on A & E about gambing addiction. A lot of the creepy addicts are the folks in front of slot machines just yanking the lever like rats in an experiment, waiting to get their pellet. I suppose the motivation (making the big score) is the same when you get addicted to poker or other games where you have to think a little (or a lot), but slots are just so dehumanizing. Brr.

At the same time, when I went to Las Vegas a few years ago for comdex, I purposefully didn't do any gambling except for placing a bet on the Steelers -- which I was able to make a few bucks on, woo hoo! But in the back of my head I thought that it would be in my personality to totally fall into the trap they setup for you, spending all your waking hours giving other people the money from the ATM machines which are so conveniently setup, or from your credit cards, draining whatever hope you have of planning your future. I know there are people who can just do a little gambling, but I have a hard time with potato chips!

The other thing I'm getting addicted to is keeping up with advogato diary entries.

(Originally posted elsewhere)

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