Games like Overwatch use Matchmaking Rating (MMR) algorithms to ensure players are matched against each other as close to the same skill level as possible:
In an ideal situation, both teams would have 50% win probability, causing the result to entirely depend on the players’ performance. [3]
This is a precondition for flow: the difficulty of the task must acutely match the skill of the player. When it does, the experience becomes naturally and intrinsically rewarding.
Cognitive Friction in Verification
Programming used to be a generative process. The act of creation & generation enabled an entry into the state of flow in the same way.
The same concept applies to writing.
Reviewing or editing - be it code, text, or other - is a verification process. Every step is a blockade that creates friction and interruptions. It prevents the ability of getting into a state of flow. In turn, it is not rewarding from a natural and intrinsic point of view, but only as a means to an end where the result may be rewarding.
One paper from 2025 references the infamous book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on Flow:
From a theoretical standpoint, verification burden disrupts cognitive flow by introducing frequent interruptions [36]. This undermines users’ sense of immersion and engagement, thereby impeding trust in tools [107].
Flow in Verification?
In a world of agentic coding, verification becomes the main activity of software engineers.
Even if we avoid the disruption of life, work, or the urge to always kick off another agent to generate something, even if we are only focused on verifying one task at a time, can flow be achieved?
Verification is rewarding because it can be a means to a good end. But, can we gamify it? Can we make verification fun?
I’m not going to present an answer here, but have a gut feeling that there might be lessons to learn from games. Those who work on QA at gaming studios treat it as a job, but also have fun doing it.
For software, will it be a new UX? A new modality? Completely automated away?
Do software developers become artists who sculpt code? Orchestrators who direct code? Soldiers who command code? Architects who envision systems of code? Gardeners who tend to code? Sitters who nurture code?
Maybe we become gamers who simply play with code?
[1] What Needs Attention? Prioritizing Drivers of Developers’ Trust and Adoption of Generative AI (2025); https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.17418
[2] Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990); https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061339202
[3] Overwatch Matchmaking; https://overwatch.fandom.com/wiki/Matchmaking