Dopamine and the Uber-Nerd

By Robin Sharp
January 8, 2006

Good software engineers are well-oiled emotionally and appreciate a beautiful sunset. That may sound counter-intuitive, as the traditional view of a software engineer is of an emotionless "cyber-geek" whose primary tool of choice is cold logic. But the two views are not mutually exclusive...

You may have heard of dopamine. Of all the hundreds of neurotransmitters in the brain, dopamine is the one that is traditionally associated with ‘pleasure’. When neurologists say pleasure, what they really mean is a sense of enjoyment gained from a perception.

Software engineers are always being accused of gaining enjoyment from nerdy things - like gadgets, design patterns and ‘beautifully’ written code. But are having these experiences ‘nerdy’, or really a superior sense of aesthetics, that detractors are simply too insensitive to experience?

Dopamine and a lot of other neurotransmitters can be thought of as affecting our feelings, emotions and happiness. Dopamine can be contrasted to serotonin, which raises the moods of happiness, or adrenaline which is more about a rush of excitement, or endorphins which create a sense of well being and contentment. In other words, neurotransmitters affect our behaviour by either stimulating or suppressing our response to a situation.

What I’m saying is that good software engineers have naturally responsive dopamine levels because they are able to appreciate (enjoy) the finer aspects of design. Which brings us back to my original point: software engineers, virtually swimming in dopamine, are well oiled emotionally. A beautiful design evokes the same experience as a beautiful sunset.

What Happens When Levels of Dopamine Break Down?

Let’s see what happens when levels of dopamine break down. Scientists looked at the genes of people who became addicted to alcohol, and found they had an error in their DRD2 gene. When they looked further, they found addicts of all kinds had an error in this gene, and those who weren’t addicts didn’t have an error in the DRD2 gene.

The DRD2 gene is associated with the production of dopamine, and alcohol and drugs increase dopamine production so they act as a substitute. So when you have an error in your DRD2 gene, it’s harder to get the same enjoyment out of a perception. When we say software engineering is like a drug – it is. Feel sorry for the junkie who has to pay for the same experience that we get from doing some design work.

In one report, a person who later became addicted to a drug didn’t get the same aesthetic experience of a beautiful sunset as those standing around her. This wasn't a one-off; it's a common story. In other words: if you’re less likely to get aesthetic pleasure from a perception, you’re more likely to become an addict.

This got me thinking about your typical IT department. It may be boring (to others), but you don’t find 1 in 5 people have mental health problems or addictions like the rest of the general population. I’d argue that people who are good at IT do so because they are highly sensitised to get enjoyment out of aesthetics. They may not be outrageous fun-seekers, alcoholics or junkies, but then again they don’t have to be.

Some more good news for software engineers is that low dopamine levels are associated with Parkinson’s disease. Addiction doesn’t cause Parkinson’s: it’s another symptom. Bad news if you’ve spent a life being addicted, and then top if off by getting Parkinson’s.

So where does this leave the uber-nerd? They may not have the same social sensitivity caused by high levels of oestrogen, but their sensitivities are more aesthetic and they are less likely to become addicts or die from a terrible disease.

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