<story><title>Factorio and Software Engineering</title><url>https://blog.nindalf.com/posts/factorio-and-software-engineering/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Shorn</author><text>This is one of the reasons I &lt;i&gt;don&amp;#x27;t&lt;/i&gt; play Factorio, or games like it.  The point of playing games for me is escapism and rest&amp;#x2F;recuperation.  I feel like I only have so much programming time in me - I think playing these types of games makes me less likely to do some real work.&lt;p&gt;Plus the &amp;quot;achievement high&amp;quot; is much less; at the end of the day, when you win&amp;#x2F;do well - you know you&amp;#x27;re supposed to feel that way, the game was designed for you to win.&lt;p&gt;I like to sometimes just browse around in my side-project&amp;#x27;s UI or even codebase and appreciate what I built.  Of course, you have to be in the right mind-frame for that.  You don&amp;#x27;t want to go looking for your achievement high and end up thinking &amp;quot;Wow, all that effort and this is all you have to show for it?&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>avalys</author><text>This week I’ve both been playing Factorio, and writing code for a new application. So, lots of figuring out interfaces, architecture and modularity, and how things will work together.&lt;p&gt;When I change from one of these activities to the other, I have the distinct mental impression that I’m not switching activities at all. When I switch from Factorio to my text editor, it’s such a seamless transition, as if I’m just scrolling to another part of my factory.&lt;p&gt;Not a sensation I’ve had with any other game, or any other pair of distinct activities, really.&lt;p&gt;I figure it &lt;i&gt;must&lt;/i&gt; mean Factorio makes me a better coder. I better get back to it, then!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>avalys</author><text>I tend to agree with you - but actually I love programming itself and I could do it all day without getting tired. The things that tire me out about work are poor documentation, inconsistent requirements, team politics, other people’s mistakes, compiler errors, version conflicts, the stress of having to deliver by a deadline or having other people depend on me, etc.&lt;p&gt;Factorio has none of that, it’s just a constant stream of positive mental stimulation.</text></comment>
<story><title>Factorio and Software Engineering</title><url>https://blog.nindalf.com/posts/factorio-and-software-engineering/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Shorn</author><text>This is one of the reasons I &lt;i&gt;don&amp;#x27;t&lt;/i&gt; play Factorio, or games like it.  The point of playing games for me is escapism and rest&amp;#x2F;recuperation.  I feel like I only have so much programming time in me - I think playing these types of games makes me less likely to do some real work.&lt;p&gt;Plus the &amp;quot;achievement high&amp;quot; is much less; at the end of the day, when you win&amp;#x2F;do well - you know you&amp;#x27;re supposed to feel that way, the game was designed for you to win.&lt;p&gt;I like to sometimes just browse around in my side-project&amp;#x27;s UI or even codebase and appreciate what I built.  Of course, you have to be in the right mind-frame for that.  You don&amp;#x27;t want to go looking for your achievement high and end up thinking &amp;quot;Wow, all that effort and this is all you have to show for it?&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>avalys</author><text>This week I’ve both been playing Factorio, and writing code for a new application. So, lots of figuring out interfaces, architecture and modularity, and how things will work together.&lt;p&gt;When I change from one of these activities to the other, I have the distinct mental impression that I’m not switching activities at all. When I switch from Factorio to my text editor, it’s such a seamless transition, as if I’m just scrolling to another part of my factory.&lt;p&gt;Not a sensation I’ve had with any other game, or any other pair of distinct activities, really.&lt;p&gt;I figure it &lt;i&gt;must&lt;/i&gt; mean Factorio makes me a better coder. I better get back to it, then!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>taneq</author><text>Yeah, that’s what always stops me from playing these. It’s fun at first (like any new project) but then I realise I could be doing exactly the same work and getting paid for it. Which I guess makes me super lucky in the “I get paid to play video games” sense.</text></comment>