We all know about dopamine. But let me give you a real quick crash course dopamine is the brain component that provides us with those little spikes of joy, fun, happiness. The thrill when things just click.
But how do you code with dopamine?
Or build systems that give it to you?
To me, a lot of that "dopamine coding" isn't work itself—but everything surrounding the work. Chatting with colleagues, having lunch, debugging someone on some random thing, tinkering with side projects. That's the good stuff that got me hooked on software development. And over time, paired with consistency—that's what made me into that person who just keeps going, even on the miserable days.
But not everybody has that sort of situation, y'know?
Not all work is encouraging. Not all teams assist. Sometimes you're just on your own in the tunnel trying to light your own path. And that's fine because I discovered that in order to keep moving forward, I had to generate my own sparks. And that began by engaging in small recreational programming projects. Messing around. Ricing up my Linux environment. Installing pointless (but purty) plugins.
One day, I was experimenting with theming my terminal. That branched into customizing my shell, creating aliases for convenience commands. And lo and behold, even something as mundane as git push provided me with a mini dopamine boost. Seeing the text zip past, colors flash, and animations move—it began making me look forward to doing tedious things.
CI/CD Pipelines
That same fascination led me to create CI/CD pipelines on my own projects. And maaaan, seeing those stages of the pipeline go by? Build → Test → Deploy… green check, green check, green check. So fulfilling.
But the surprise: the failures I learned more from. When tests crashed, when builds failed, I had to know Docker better, tweak my configs, look through logs. To debug the pipeline wasn't an obligation—it was beating a tough boss in a game. You learn, level up, and you make it next time a bit quicker.
Testing (Yes, it slaps)
Okay I see it, testing gets a bad name. It's that thing you're "supposed" to do, but nobody wants to deal with. I felt the same. Couldn't even distinguish unit, integration, and e2e testing at the time. Honestly, sometimes I still can't tell them apart. But what brought me back?
Those green ticks. That "All tests passed" feeling. Whether it's JUnit or your IDE celebrating with confetti when your test suite runs without errors, it just feels good. It's like emptying your inbox or setting a workout PR.
And the ultimate kicker? Achieving 100% code coverage. Sure, I know 100% isn't always great coverage—but dopamine doesn't discriminate. It feels like a win.
Task Managers (Underrated Dopamine Sources)
Let's not snooze on this task management is a hidden dopamine farm.
You may think following tasks is just for productivity nerds, but listen: creating your own task manager informs you about how frameworks work, how state transitions, and how UI can feel alive. But even with a simple one, like a Markdown checklist or GitHub Projects, it feels different when you're crossing things off.
Occasionally, I do make a note of things I've already done just so I can cross them off. It's not about productivity it's about momentum. Micro-wins piling up until you look and see you've actually delivered something significant.
The Real Hack: Stack All 3
If you're a student or doing personal projects, I find that putting all three of these together custom setups, pipelines, and task systems really puts you in touch with what dev work is like nowadays. You begin to get the idea that your little universe of projects is a living system.
The point isn't to be super productive. The point is to discover the smallest, easiest thing that makes you feel that little happiness—a pretty animation, a green checkmark, a smooth alias—and leverages it to get you started on things you wouldn't otherwise engage in.
When you're stuck, out of ideas for work, or just don't wanna code—do something small:
- Install a new terminal font
- Add some transition to your CSS buttons
- Customize your bash prompt
- Learn a single awesome new git command
- Write a small test just to witness the green tick
Every dull or infuriating task is a secret attempt at happiness. Not manufactured happiness, but earned happiness the kind that happens only when you fiddle, adjust, and make something feel like yours.
That's how you construct with dopamine. That's how you keep going.
Thanks for reading!