The answer is endorphins. The harder the problem that you solve, the bigger the fix you get. Hacky solution is not the solution, you know it, so you don't get much. If you realize and accept this as the cause, the solution to your problem (which I think is very common between the programmers) is obvious.
Comments
> It's hard to generalize.
It's actually very easy to generalize.
The answer is endorphins. The harder the problem that you solve, the bigger the fix you get. Hacky solution is not the solution, you know it, so you don't get much. If you realize and accept this as the cause, the solution to your problem (which I think is very common between the programmers) is obvious.