The Shining Is a Film About Developer Madness

You don’t need to be mad to be a developer but it helps

Ben "The Hosk" Hosking
4 min readAug 11, 2023
picture from here

Software development has merely provided us with more efficient means of going crazy

Many people think the shining is about angry telepathic hotel making a recovering alcoholic (with anger issues) go mad whilst trying to write a manuscript in a snow storm with a big maze thrown in.

WRONG!

It’s about the madness and pain felt by developers writing documentation no one will ever read and being forced to do other pointless tasks.

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Einstein

Developers do that daily because we have to. Madness is knowing the faster you work, the more work you are given, but you work fast anyway.

What is the Shining

There are two versions of the Shining The Shining (novel) and the film The Shining (film).

Jack Torrance is a recovering alcoholic writer (with anger issues) who takes a job as a caretaker of the Colorado Overlook Hotel. The hotel is shut down for winter (trapped in a snow…

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Ben "The Hosk" Hosking

Technology philosopher | Software dev → Solution architect | Avid reader | Life long learner