Note that $|x+| x||=2 x$ when $x$ is nonnegative, and is equal to 0 otherwise. Thus, when there are 2017 $x$ 's, the expression equals $2017 x$ when $x \geq 0$ and $-x$ otherwise, so the two solutions to the equation are $x=-1$ and $\frac{1}{2017}$, and their sum is $-\frac{2016}{2017}$.