I've heard similar things from many people know, but I don't feel like this at all. I don't find coding with Claude any more or less addictive than without. I do find coding with claude slightly more fun, but mostly because brainstorming with someone/something feels less lonely than writing code alone. I wonder where the discrepancy comes from.

Seeing the final result of a feature doesn't really give me any dopamine. Maybe because I'm mostly working on projects I know how to do. When I give it a prompt I already know what the result should look like, so I'm not really surprised by anything it produces.

I work at a fully remote company, and coding with Claude hits the "pair programming" itch I have. Obviously it's not the same thing (and I do chitchat with coworkers on teams to get real human interaction during the day), but one of my favorite parts of my job is having technical conversations with others, debating the pros and cons of a certain approach. Pre-AI, they were occasional conversations I had with younger devs, but now I have them every day.

I found Claude extremely addicting at first (the dopamine hits were real for me!) but over time I guess I've gotten desensitized.