Coders from all over likely already know of this quote, or would certainly would benefit from perma-copying this quote to the front of their brain-stem/visual-cortex knowledge queue:

“Premature optimization is the root of all evil.” ― Donald Ervin Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms

So then, what’s this about Hyper-Focal in relation? It’s when one builds a “maladapted neurological reward-center structured pattern of behavior”.

IOW, it’s a learned behavior from which one has associated a perceived positive emotional reaction-feedback which they consider of benefit and thus worth repeating. This happens very deep in the subconscious mind, where most people have barely any awareness of (not meant as a slight, but simply most are not learned in that level of neuro-signals processing and neurotransmitter precision awareness (if one does have it, they’ve likely endured extensive medical treatments and controls-isolation which border on Frankensteinian levels of research)).

This type of learned behavior is due to the manner in which neurotransmitter signals processing is handled in the brain, based on dopamine secretion going through its paces in the pre-frontal cortex / nucleus accumbens / and mid-brain structures observed in the “Mesocorticolimbic to Nigrostriatal Dopaminergic Pathway”.

The maladapted aspect occurs when that learned pattern of behavior has a flaw in its feedback loop, and is not as helpful to the person as they perceive; it persists as a detrimental behavioral loop. Though the person has associated this rising-tide of dopamine with the learned actions and pattern of behavior, something about its internal or external effects (which are very varied, because life is complex and sometimes complicated) has become detrimental and its adaptation to the user’s inhabited space no longer properly “fits the pattern to the maze” (yes, we are all lab rats seeking cheese in this fine and glorious simulation).

Ok fine, so what then? We can optimize, we can pre-optimize, we can post-optimize, and over-optimize these thousands of feedback loops in our behavioral structures… but it is through finding a balance to our internal modes of self-maintenance and self-awareness that we find the action-pattern markers of success: consistency, pleasure, happiness.

This “Dopaminergic Pathways to Action!” topic can be simplified or go much deeper into the realms of cognitive neuro-psychology, but in knowing my own awareness patterns of behavior for 4am writing… I’m going to stop for now.

Yay Science!