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Finding the Programming Zone?
SlashDotDashDot asks: "As a developer for 20+ years, I've developed a fairly fine tuned way to find 'The Zone' for optimal programming - a combination of furniture arrangement (PC and chair), lighting
and music. I also have a pretty good sense of what time of day is best for working on a particular set of problems. But this is what works for me. My company is growing and I'm needing to mediate working conditions between my clients and consultants. This has me wondering what others have found important for finding 'The Zone' in their programming lives. How fast can you get there? How long does it last? What do you do that helps keep that state? What are the major interrupters?" We also touched on this issue in a similar article, last year. However, many of you may have ways of attaining "the zone" that don't depend on any of the factors listed above. If you have a method that works for you, please share. It may work for others.
...is sometime after 5.
Seriously. I get most of my work done after everybody leaves...nobody shooting the sh_t or asking me questions or for status reports. There's an emotion around here that open floors equate productivity, but that's just not true...I get more done the hour after the boss walks out than I do in an entire day of his polling and sneaking.
Speaking of which, this post is cutting into that time...gonna make it short.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Nothing is more distracting than a web browser. And virtually every programmer has got one. How many people reading this comment right now should be working?
It's even worse if you do web programming for a living. There is no hope.
But for design work, I find I do my best stuff in a completely different environment.
First of all, get away from your computer. If you're doing design, you should be envisioning shapes, graphs, and so on--you should not be thinking about code. Do not look at; do not touch it. Look at a whiteboard or stare at the sky while you're doing this.
Next, do something (other than caffeiene) to stimulate your metabolism. Play a few games of foosball, or take a shower, or have a cigar. I've done some of my best design work while standing in the shower.
Finally, let your subconscious work on it. Keep thinking about the problem as you go about your day, but don't stress out about not making any progress. A day or two into it, you'll have an epiphany and realize that it's all very simple.
Bah! Screw daylight. The Zone in which good things happen (for me, at least) is one in which just about any marked input to the senses is reduced - the room is warm enough to be comfortable sitting still, no bright light to distract the eyes and ambient tunes to cover rude neighbors or people in the hall. My penchant for darker inside offices (no glass) earned me the title Caveman in at least one past position.
The key here is four walls and a door. I've heard the lame excuse that 'an open environment promotes communication' - what you end up with is being pinned like a bug under glaring lights listening to the dork in the next cube yack at his wife eternally. Sure you can communicate until you're sick of each other, but nobody can concentrate on code..
I'd have to make some exceptions to this position...
Being a surgeon is like being a very talented mechanic, with an excellent memory and fine motor skills. Additionally, the rigors of internship filter out those not qualified or capable. The creative muse has little place in a field where a few fractions of a mm slip in the right place can kill someone. A surgeon can get by with zero creativity other than adapting to "normal variation" in anatomy and being able to recall what procedures to apply, and still function very, very well.
OTOH, programming covers a wide breath of skills and abilities. Programming batch file processing scripts requires little creativity. Designing realtime attitude control systems requires grasp of many mechanical, electronic, control-theory, and scientifc fields beyond programming, and creativity to figure out how to acheive your goals. Bleeding edge 3d game engines require obscene amounts of creative design skills encompassing and correlating traditional CS, as well as physics, lighting, perceptual psychology, game theory, and much, much more.
A sr. programmer with a design responsibility on a bleeding edge project with 'creative block' can be unable to do their job "well", even if a "professional". Sure, you can sit down and hack something out anyway, and I've seen the results of that. Unfortunately, many companies can get away with crap code, and I guess yours is one of them...
Creativity results in elegant programming. Those who claim otherwise, likely do not write elegant code...
I'll tell you a thing.
Writing code is very much like writing a novel. One day it's flowing out of you. Then on another day, it just stops. And there's no way you can easily tap it back 'ON'.
It's not about 'formal methods'. With all your bag of formal method tricks, if you can't visualize (in some personal way) problem you're facing, then you can't apply anything to it. Nothing, nada.
This is why CAP will never really take off. You need to really understand what is going on, and what one should do. Computer just can't do it.
fucktard is a tenderhearted description
For me, maximizing my time in the "Zone" is dependant on one major thing - physical fitness. The more energy I have, the longer I can work - and work well.
I have a fairly easy system for achieving this.
1.) I get up every morning at 5:00am and run 3-5 miles,
2.) Shower (very important step, do not omit.)
3.) Eat a good breafast (generally a piece of fresh fruit and some "healthy" cereal.)
4.) Eat a healthy lunch.
5.) Get out of the office during lunch, for a mental break.
I avoid artificial stimulants at all costs.
I find that I generally have much more productive time than the other people in my team, and don't spend 10 minutes on the hour servicing a coffee habit. My mind is clear all day. I don't suffer from the afternoon slowdown.
Granted, I do fall asleep fairly early in the evening (around 10:00pm) but I provide more work to my employer, on a time schedule that is convenient to him.
Think about that when the next round of layoffs begin.
I thought long and hard before posting this comment... it's a bit on the harsh side, but being a part of the IT industry, I feel I'm entitled to offer an observation (as most /. readers are!)
There are far too many IT employees, especially programmers, who are under the misconception that they are something special. There are many industries and jobs that involve enourmous levels of creativity and innovation, however I can't think of many that contain so many whining graduates.
Take teaching for example. Every day, a teacher is required to educate their students. They don't get the option of saying "I can't find my zone, I'll be back in a few hours". The don't have the option of rearranging their working environment to suit themselves (as opposed to suiting their students/team). Sure, you can point out that teachers are generally following a process that is predefined... so are programmers though.
Looking back within the IT community, take a look at the higher level support engineers. When a server farm catches fire, triggers the sprinklers, and dies a gurgling death, do you really think it would be appropriate for any of them to say "the room just doesn't _feel_ right"? Nope - they have to get the job done.
Programming, for the most part, is a case of following the yellow brick road. The road is paved by your team leaders, in most cases, and when it isn't there is very little stopping programmers from following the processes and methodologies they claim make them special ("I have a DEGREE!").
And what about childcare workers? Have you ever considered what it would be like working in an environment totally designed in favour of creatures half your size? I happen to know one or two of these people, and let me tell you that they never bitch or moan about their working environment not being ideal for their "thought process"!
Face it - we're nothing special. We carry out a job, and not a very hard one at that. Sure, once in a while we need to demonstrate flashes of brilliance, but based on the ones I know, the vast majority of IT workers probably shouldn't have jobs in the first place.
Be grateful you have the opportunity to work in a field that pays well, offers good working environments, decent job security (those who lie to themselves, and believe that we are any less secure than the rest of the world are fools), and cool toys to play with. Personally, I feel lucky to have the opportunity to work within the field.
(Incidently, I sit in a cubicle that is rather small, at a desk that isn't particularly comfortable, with a window behind me that casts glare all over my screen, in an open plan office. I can hear my team chatting with their wives, the aircon is unpredictable, and the lighting annoys me. But I get to work in a field I love. Personally, I think I'm winning here)