that one is long gone, a mate crashed it after drinking a bit much. :’(
hmm, that sucks, I liekd that bike 
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programming for yourself = playing god (and is always interesting/fun). <-- this is the ‘drug’ that keeps most of us keen.
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programming monotonous business logic for others can sometimes be dreary, but its usually… ummm…err…Ok.
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programming all day and all night can make you very agitated.
I’m guessing your simply feeling this way because you’ve done too much of (3), take a break, get outside, look around a bit (have a smoke?) and stay away from the computer/tv screens for a bit. And no, gaming/watching tv/vids != break.
fyi: I dream about (1), do mostly (2), and have a wife & 2 kids that forbids me to do (3).
Game playing is a waste of time/life? Not at all. Game playing, as programming, or any other activity done to excess, is bad. As you point out below, the key in everything is balance.
[quote]Life balance is very important.
Lol! You crack me up gouessej! Maybe you should be be more of a clandestine communist, and just wait for the revolution like the trotskyists instead of inciting it 
[/quote]
I have the same opinion Chris. During the last months I think I had to take a break at home about game dev. I spent more time playing games like Mario & Luigi Bowser’s inside story, which is excellent by the way.
If you do too much the same thing for a long time then your brain starts to “freeze” because you’re mentally tired. Also, I spent many hours yesterday with my daughter to build a toy for my son. I mean, I did a manual activity and I can tell you that it was so beneficial for my mental; so restful!
Write games! Ride motorbikes! All life-affirming stuff, creation and near-death experiences. I also advise having a sprog. That seems to be working out very rewardingly, adding nurturing into the mix.
Arrgh! Total time logged in: 25 days, 12 hours and 59 minutes. And stop wasting time on forums!
Cas 
I agree.
But I think that programming makes you smarter and sharper while single player game-playing (and definitely TV!) makes you dumber. I have trouble respecting people who just play games all the time.
Multiplayer games are less dumb because there’s interaction and competition/cooperation with people. And some movies are good because they can be inspiring.
Indeed. Although… a while ago I was watching this multi-layer movie (eternal sunshine of the spotless mind - 2004), and for some reason halfway the movie the cd-r just crashed and we had to burn another one. I couldn’t convince them that we already had seen the last 3 scenes with very inspiring dialogs.
Makes you think about how other people think and waste their life on the same things that can be very worthwhile for you. In the end it’s about personal growth, and if programming is what it takes to keep your brain sharp to improve other areas of your life, it’s worth every head scratching minute.
The medium doesn’t matter as much as the message. I agree that most TV shows and movies are a waste of time but that doesn’t mean that all are.
I think playing games is a great way to see what others are doing and to help inspire me to finish something. Sure if all you do is play there’s no time left to create your game but if all you do is work you will burn yourself out.
Playing games focuses the mind, achieves meditatative states, and improves hand-eye coordination.
Online games tend to teach me how to swear in Polish. Jebanie!
Cas
a very usefull ability
Well, the original question is an important one.
What I find most wasteful is sitting in front of the computer without much to show for it.
When my contribution matters, people use what I do every day, then I’m satisfied.
Waste is not being creative and productive, and having your work rendered useless.
You must enjoy what you’re doing to be creative and productive.
What gives me value is creating something original, that nobody else could create, present it, everyone liking it a lot, and then putting it into a real product and having thousands or hundreds of thousands of people using it. The enjoyment of knowing that you’ve made a beneficial contribution is good. (That’s one aspect of my real job)
If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, then you’re wasting your life programming. Find a different career, go work at a Zoo, or join the police academy, or go work as a volunteer in poor African countries, whatever helps you to enjoy life.
It’s as simple as that.
Sorry, but that is a ridiculous notion. Programming all the time just makes you know more about programming (EDIT: Not exactly true as those skills will transfer to other areas as well.). Period. It does not make you a better chef, know more about medicine, or how to tune a car. Again, it is all about balance. It’s funny, I know a brilliant programmer and a brilliant surgeon. They are two people at the top of their respective games. Both of these brilliant men can barely tie their shoes without falling over. I remember one of them asking me, during a particularly bad winter storm, how to start a snow thrower while they held the handle that said in giant red letters “PRESS HANDLE TO START”.
A question. Why is it that when we see Garry Kasparov beat Deep Blue in chess, it is held up by papers all over the world as an amazing testament of the human intellect? It’s just a game. However, it is a game that has had the benefit of time. Time to be accepted as a good pursuit. Video games do not, yet, have that luxury.
EDIT: Also, playing games all the time makes you dumber? Prove it. Show me. Because we actually have evidence that playing games on a regular basis can have a positive effect on other areas of competency. Like this, for example: http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2004/12/66086
So if playing games makes you better at other things, why can’t programming?
Actually, Markus, you are correct. There are plenty of skills one learns in programming that transfer to other areas. Completely agree. I guess I was over rotating on the “…single player game-playing (and definitely TV!) makes you dumber.” comment.
Yeah, I never understood why people feel that way. TV I can kinda sorta see how it’d train you to be passive, but playing games? Huh?
Thank you everybody for the feedback and comments.
As I told in the first place, I’m not willing to stop programming . I was just wondering if I was the only one who felt I spend too much time with it .
As for the other topics this has led to, I will not try to discuss, but I must confess I own all the english I speak (and type) to Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6 and all those amazing SNes games . Not to mention the Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris movies which taught me how to properly swear .
However, I do believe there are activities that stimulate our brain more than others. But who told that we have to stimulate our brains 100% of the time ? We also need to have some fun !
As somebody said previously, I think the important is the balance . (Even if your balance is 70% programming and 30% doing something else)
Lol, ok well I’m not going to quote a study/journal article, but I’m sure there’d be plenty showing my point (and yours conversely! That’s the trouble with academic articles).
But anecdotelly, I know many losers who have lost years of their prime youth/adulthood to dumb games, especially world of warcraft and friends. I’m sure you would too.
I recently learned a great word that sums up a person’s state while watching TV - torpor. I think many RPG games involve the same level of mental inactivity, such as the requirement to level up by repetitious actions (such as chopping trees to increase wood chop skill in Runescape).
The video games do not have bad effects on the health on my view, these “losers” have social problems and I prefer a loser that “wastes” his time in playing with WoW than a loser drinking alcohol and beating his wife. I think that the practice of video games do not cause these social problems, please don’t mix everything. I agree with ChrisM, video games have to be accepted as a good pursuit. If someone practices a sport very often, how cares? Nobody will tell him “you practice too much, you will become dumb” whereas if someone plays a lot with video games, the reaction of the people will be completely different, it is simply a kind of discrimination.
I agree with both Keith and Chris. Part of what I enjoy about playing games at this point in my life is that I do in many ways go into a torpor. I am totally focused in on this fantasy world and having a fun little challenge while I’m at it. It’s a good thing to do when I want to de-stress and relax from all the regular things in life. It’s the same exact release I get when I watch movies and read books (both of which I also do frequently). However, when I read I often get great ideas for stories to write (some of which I do write), I learn new vocabulary, and I often get a slightly different perspective on life. If I am watching a movie I often have the same results - I get excited about something else, stimulated to do something or learn something different. Video games are much the same way, especially because I have made a career of game programming. I get implementation ideas, I see something I admire, etc. Not to forget that my overall speed of use with a computer increases and no doubt my ability to quickly match patterns does too.
World of Warcraft and other painfully repetitious MMOs I believe draw upon the same twitch as gambling does. In fact, most stats-based or achievement-based games seem to do this on some level. “I just need to get that next level” or “I just have to get one more,” are very very similar to the “just one more try” attitude of gambling. I actually agree that these sorts of games are pretty dangerous. I played WoW myself for about 3 months, and often would play for 4 hours at a time (especially when in a dungeon with 39 other players). Maybe the difference is that I hated leveling up and was only in it to see the amazingly beautiful worlds and bosses (although I’m the type of guy who really loved Endless Ocean, a game where you just swim around and look at stuff), so when they released the expansion, requiring me to spend more time leveling up, I quit. But I’ve been known to spend a lot of time getting stupid achievements in L4D also… so what’s the balance? Are there are types of games that are nothing but bad for you? I’d definitely say no, as it completely depends on what the individual is getting out of it, and once again depends on moderation.