   Improving yourself by improving your environment
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I don't even have friends. Problem solved.;I don't even have friends. Problem solved.Eeeyup. coming out of highschool I really only had 3-4 close friends. two are in the navy now, and the other two I see very rarely. Personally, I've learned to live with my solitude for the most part. I value my mental thoughts more so than interacting with others in social gatherings.   ;Instead of friends, I do this:;No idea. Here I don't have anyone to discuss with the stuff I'm doing either. Everybody seems way more interested in web and design stuff (ActionScript, Haxe, PHP, CSS, etc). I'm currently using Java + OpenGL, I haven't seen anyone else interested in programming for GPUs, so I come to here, Gamedev, to see what others are doing.;I don't even have friends. Problem solved. That pretty much sums it up for me, too... [foreveralone.png];  I went to school in rural Australia. I made my first big game project with people from Germany, Switzerland, UK and USA, over my 56Kb modem ;)My school friends had no interest in programming, but they were into LAN parties (and real parties), and were key to my social development. It turns out that in the workplace, good communication/negotiation/tolerance are just as important as being a good programmer ;)   ;"Nah, I need to stay home and get some work done."No, you don't. Before I say anything, realize I'm the person who says if you're studying computer science but don't love it enough to do it in your free time (for fun), you should probably look into doing something you enjoy more. Because I hate working with people who don't love what they do (for various reasons). But... and it's an important but, don't let it become the only thing you do. I'm not saying you have to go to a roller coast theme park or paintballing with a bunch of friends (and I'm definitely not saying you shouldn't do your homework, and do it well). I'm not going to tell you what to do (at least not specific activities). I will say, however, that if all you do is stay home and work... you're going to be one of those people who are hard to work with (and, as you notice, it's kinda lonely). Go out, have some fun (doing non-programming things), sharpen social skills, etc. What I'm really trying to say is that yes, you should program for fun. You should program lots, and for fun. You should do your schoolwork, and try to go above and beyond the minimum requirements (because that's when you really learn some cool stuff!). And if you can make some programmer friends, do! They're awesome to have! Geek out with them! But please, don't get into the mentality of "If I'm not programming, I'M GOING TO DIE!" Because you won't. Embracing a distraction for a day won't suck away all your 1337 hacker skills and force you to forget what a for-loop is. And the things you can learn/experience by doing non-programming things can actually help you a ton in programming, your career, your relationships, and the rest of your life. For example, I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't embrace some social distractions (note: I'm not saying "embrace ALL the distractions!"). I was living on campus during my first year of college and made some friends (none of them were programmers), who would often hang out in my room (while I was programming or doing school work... it was distracting, to say the least). I always kept my door open, so they would just wander in. Well, sometimes I put the computer away and actually did stuff with them. Turns out that one of them, Chloe, had a dad who was the CTO of Sorenson Media. I had no idea. But that friendship got me my first programming job (with Sorenson Media), which put me in a situation to get involved with the FFmpeg project, which got me my second programming job, which has me going to cool things like GDC and is going to be a huge asset in me getting into a masters program at school. If I had shut my door and became a recluse/programming zombie, I would have seriously limited myself.;But please, don't get into the mentality of "If I'm not programming, I'M GOING TO DIE!" Because you won't. I was going to say the same thing.  There is an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" where Leonard and Sheldon compete in the physics bowl, and then at the end Penny quizzes them with simple questions from pop culture, and they have no idea.   "How do you know all this stuff?" asked Leonard."I go outside and talk to people." replies Penny. Do you know how many of my friends, through my entire life, understand C++, Java, DirectX, OpenGL, and all the other geeky stuff?  None of them.  My friends have nothing to do with software.  Getting away, hanging out with others, doing something besides programming, is a good thing.  I know lots of guys who never had friends who would invite them to parties, and they would have KILLED for that.;I don't have any programmer friends (though I do have a friend who does game development, but he's not really a programmer) You know what, it's great to just go out. Like Cornstalks said, not programming for a day won't kill you.