In 1971, Gerald M. Weinberg, put forward a controversial idea: we should look at programming as a human activity, not just a mathematical, scientific, or technological one. 

Sounds obvious, right? But The Psychology of Computer Programming was a landmark book, pushing organisations to look at software through a humanistic lens, not just a technological one. If you ignore the mainframes and punch card references, this book feels as relevant today as it likely did in the seventies.

Weinberg was right to look at developers’ emotions and relationships. Happiness shapes job market outcomes, productivity, and even firm performance. Thanks to a growing body of research looking specifically at developer happiness, we know today that happy software developers are more productive, write better code and make better decisions.  

What’s more, their sense of self is positively impacted: increased motivation and accomplishment, higher creativity, engagement and self-confidence are all results reported from greater happiness. Unhappiness, by contrast, causes low cognitive performance, mental unease or disorder, low motivation, work withdrawal and broken flow.

Of course, the value of happiness goes far beyond the positive outcomes it drives in the job market. Higher levels of happiness are associated with better physical and mental health and a longer life span. Happier people give more, have longer and more fulfilling platonic and romantic relationships and more friends, and are even more likely to comply with COVID-19 rules! 

And happiness operates in a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop: if you are happy in work, you are more successful in work, and if you are more successful, you are happier.  Likewise, happiness in one area of your life drives and impacts your happiness in others. For example, if you’re happy in your community, you’re likely happy in your relationships as well.

As a developer-focused job platform and a community-driven company, developer happiness is at the heart of what we do. We hope that Honeypot’s Developer Happiness Index will empower developers in work and life and inspire companies to think about happiness not just as a personal issue, but also as an economic one.