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Finding a Personal Coding Trifecta
jammag writes "For Seinfeld's George Constanza, his dream of the ideal moment was having sex while watching TV and eating a pastrami sandwich. He called this Nirvana state 'The Trifecta.' Developer Eric Spiegel adapts this concept of Nirvana to the act of writing your best possible code. He examines all (or most) of the possible things that might contribute to the 'The Trifecta' for developers — food, beverages, time of day. Spiegel also describes his personal Trifecta."
Diet Mountain Dew, Buffalo sauce flavored chicken breast, Midnight-2am.
taking a shit, eating pizza, and a porn-star quality blow job.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
SSIA!
You only need one thing.
Wow, way to avoid reinforcing stereotypes there, Eric!
egypt urnash minimal art.
Getting blown and drinking a fine Scotch while solving the halting problem.
About 2 years ago, I had sex while playing WoW.
When the achievement system kicked in, I quit. Really, no in-game achievement could've topped that.
1) Large cup of milk tea (Marks and Spencers gold)
2) WXPN saved 5hr weekly stream of Starsend (http://www.starsend.org/)
3) Emacs + happy hacking keyboard
Mix & voila, you get 100+k of low level fw that is used in 100's of million chips on chip roms.
H.
Rachel Alexandra, Mine That Bird, Musket Man
Set your phasers on "funky"!
while the article is lame, the subject is not.
More important than what you need to get into your zone (because I think we all know how this works for our own needs), is how do you explain this to others who do not understand "the zone"?
The hardest part for me is getting others to respect my zone. They just don't understand. For kids, you can't really blame them. You just have to stay out of sight and out of mind. But for the adults, they often just don't get it.
The biggest "zone breakers" are interruptions of any kind or duration. Having to stop for even one minute to take a call or acknowledge a communication can break your flow completely and it can take time to get back into gear. I think there have even been studies showing it takes some 15 minutes average to get back.
And of course this applies to anyone doing something highly creative or thoughtful.
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
I can't remember where I first read this definition...
Professional:
Someone who can do his very best work, even when he doesn't feel like it.
A few days of a free schedule, no interruptions, and a private, quiet workspace will do the trick for me.
Go away...
No, seriously, just go away...
1) A clear notion of the task at hand (very rare in most work places)
2) An interesting problem to solve (even more rare)
3) The ability to focus. No interruptions or noise.
The third one, however is so damn rare, that if I were granted it.. I'd be most reticent to push my luck by asking for the first two. The laughter of upper management alone will certainly be loud enough to wake me from the day dream.
... the other day. For those of you that don't want to click through, it's about finding the right mix of alcohol, sleep and energy levels, all in search of hitting that sweet spot.
1. 11 pm.
2. Good headphones.
3. Good music.
What if she enjoys it?
And you know, the grandparent never said he wanted to do them at the exact same time, pervert...
Why does his trifecta have five points?
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
SERENITY NOW!
He completely overlooked this - in fact, I found this comment rather amusing: "...so I can take little mental breaks and sing along." Around coworkers. Whom, he assumes, have their earbuds in. They may have their earbuds in, but it might be that they are pursuing the lesser of two completely undesirable options. I used to think like he did - that I needed music in order to code. After trying a little experiment where I went without for a while, I realized how much I had been kidding myself. I am now a strong believer that there's nothing like a quiet environment for allowing one to focus on their work.
1) Inspiration and motivation. (The project is appealing with interesting and stimulating challenges.)
2) Optimism. (The project has clear and attainable goals. I look forward to completion because I think it'll be a great product.)
3) Competition and Recognition. (My project is going head to head with someone else's and or might receive recognition. I'll work faster. I'll be less likely to lose Optimism or Motivation and it'll challenge me to push beyond the comfort zone.)
1. View out a window in front of me. 2. Not bothered by anyone. 3. Good psytrance music in my headphones. That's how I code best.
Chill out. The bible doesn't say you can't have a shit and get a blow job at the same time. So if the bible isn't against it then where are you getting this high moral sense from?
The first is best in low to medium doses, anything more than that and I'm too wired to really focus. Best served green and carbonated or with equal amounts of milk and sugar. The second falls under the category of "repetitive music with few to no lyrics." The third can actually stand apart from the second because I've found that even if I'm not actually listening to anything at the time people see the headphones and (usually) give a second thought to bothering me, especially at work. Finally the deadline is a big factor because like many people I seem to produce my best code under pressure.
Of course it also helps to have tools that I don't have to fight against to get things done, time away from my coworkers (who are usually great fun, which is actually the problem), and no constant email interruptions.
God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
1. Air; fresh air; that's why I work outside when I can
2. soothing background noise, i.e. (my favorite) music, birds singing, water flowing
3. no disruptions. ever.
4. Cherry keyboard.
Got it all nowadays. The reflecting-laptop-monitor-problem can be solved with an external monitor.
1. night
2. near total silence
3. no other people awake in the vicinity
I have found that these three help me to focus on my task and nothing else. No distractions, no obligations to anyone and the silent hum of my pc help me to focus on my goal, whatever it might be.
This is fully personal however and other people may find this the most displeasent way to be productive. This might not be the ideal situation for me but I feel very comfortable and it can be reached quite easily once a day.
If these conditions are fulfilled and I am devoted to my task I can get some good work done. My problem is that I need to reach a certain waypoint in my work or else I can have a sleepless night thinking about how to finish it.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Atmosphere or equipment. In my case, I like a quiet spot, an Aeron, and a Model M keyboard. Ridiculous? Maybe, even probably. But they help me get in the zone to work much more than, say, music, which I mostly find irritating.
"trifecta" = same time
The movie "Swordfish" does it best -- a guy is forced to hack into a government site, with two things as motivation - a gun to the head and a women polishing his pole. That would be quite a trifecta!
For those of you just tuning in, while I do not personally know Eric Spiegel, I have been exposed to a number of his articles and it's pretty damned obvious that this kid's not a "Real Programmer (tm)". He comes off like every other brown-nosing no-talent assclown, always quick to criticize the people and things his boxed mind cannot encompass. Maybe he's jealous, as he consistently advocates the use of "corporate discipline" to combat "dangerous elements" in the workplace, with dangerous meaning "smarter/geekier than me" in his vocabulary.
My favorite tidbit is this:
Am I reading this wrong, or is he basically accusing genius programming of planting bugs in their code, to be fixed later with great fanfare ? We all know someone who does that, and to any coder worth his salt, those posers stick out like a sore thumb. HR may be blind to their charades, but anyone with a brain can see right through them. I'll posit that if Mr. Spiegel cannot distinguish brilliance from fraud, he probably isn't qualified to make bold statements about programmers in the first place, and we here at Slashdot should refrain from distributing his libelous monologues.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
For me, it has to be around night time, raining outside, moderately windy, moon shining.
Listening to some classical music.
Some nice cool water.
And as strange as it seems, with a little pain... (sore head as an example)
I'm 2/4 there just now. (yes, 1/2, blah)
I have a nice cold drink, and sore head.
My code at the moment is pretty decent, been writing a gridmaker for generating 2D maps.
Was thinking of porting it to JavaScript since it would be so much easier to work with. (since it does involve it massively in the end)
I'd put it up to 3/4 with the music, but i am watching the end of Lost. (running away before someone spoils it)
With amphetamines and a quiet room, nothing else is required.
Well then you really don't want to hear my trifecta. It involves choking people without a sense of humor to death by ramming my cock, covered in shit, down their throat, and that's just the first part!
For whatever reason, sitting in a chair normally causes my legs to ache. I must have RLS or something. Unfortunately my current desk arrangement doesn't allow for me to elevate my legs other than to put them on my desk... which I do almost all of the time.
So, I guess:
Footrest, chair with back support, laptop with mouse.
Standing up is also comfortable for a while at times.
For coding (not sensory input nirvana), it would be: Hardware: a notebook with an IBM keyboard, a quad core i7 processor, at least RAID 0 SSD drives, a gizillion terabytes of RAM (etc ridiculous performance). Maybe 3 24" monitors Environment: Hmm, maybe setup in a jacuzzi Project: Something cool to work on, inspirational, and pays well and appreciated, with technical freedom.
#1 Management off my case, leave me alone, no restrictions on what I can and cannot code.
#2 Coworkers stop bugging me about their problems and how I should fix them for them, to take away valuable time from my own problems to fix and programs to write.
#3 Analysis and design that actually makes sense and is easy to follow. Not vague legalspeak and not "make it look like Outlook" and other BS.
If I didn't have 1 through 3, I could have reached a coding Nerdvana and that would have been my Trifecta.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
There's only one person here who's an asshole, and it certainly isn't the OP.
... so that I can avoid all the noise below this post.
1. Coding (TFA marks this as a constant for this discussion)
2. Stimulants (Cigarettes, a 2L bottle of soda and another 2L that I know is waiting for me in the fridge)
3. Music (Indie/Alternative Rock on Pandora so that I know to stand up and stretch once an hour when it asks if I'm still listening)
My God! It's full of eval()'s.
1. Boss interrupts every hour with "just a little thing. This customer is experiencing a problem. Can you fix it for them?"
2. Boss puts team of developers together in big room, with the "belly-laugh sales guy", confident that this will encourage productivity and connectedness with the customer's issues.
3. Boss evaluates your progress on the new user interface you can show him today, and how it is so much better and more complete than the one you showed him yesterday. "Architecture is for later when we can afford it. Maybe for large companies. We're about customers. We're agile!"
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
And it got me to thinking: What's the perfect combination of these outside factors that helps each developer succeed beyond expectations?
Answer: Low expectations.
Yes ... this whole post was just to ride the tails of the headjob joke. *shame*
If I was witty I'd put something funny here but, as it stands, I am not and have just wasted seconds of your life
I'll play along, but I don't get it. "vitamin r" + a 40oz, posicore/youth crew hxc on the stereo, and programming = coding trifecta. Can't do that every night obviously but if I can do it, I absolutely will do it, it's the best way to program... or to do anything, really. Of course, I'm failing to mention the half-dozen other conditions equally critical to the "coding zone".
I don't think any programmer can narrow down only two factors (plus coding) that comprise the nexus of programming. that number is unrealistically low and suspiciously arbitrary -- what, just cause the word "Trifecta" is a fashionable internet meme you think there ought to be a coding Trifecta? Admit it, you just like saying the word and you like being heard saying it. Some kind of nerd ego thing? You just want to fit in? You want to announce to others that you're in the know? "Hey, look here... I said Trifecta. That's THREE things... Yea, I got the 411 on that. I can count all kinds of things to THREE, for example coding focusizers, so what's up?"
Come on, people. This is why jocks think nerds deserve a fist to the face.
The game.
If you need him explicitly stating that it's a joke to know that it is, you're not just an asshole, you're an idiot too.
And who are you to decide that someone has "serious problems" just because they like something you disapprove of? It's not like having serious depression or OCD; it doesn't negatively affect her in any way, except perhaps in that she can't talk to fine, upstanding, moralistic assholes like you about such things.
Spiegel is an ingloris ass who hates real genius. I've hired real genius, tolerated thin 'isms; fired a few and learned to lead the rest. Spiegel would begone promptly.
If you want depraved, imagine someone whose trifecta is taking a shit, having a blow job, whilst discussing the finer points of the morality of things that should be none of your business, with you.
Whether he's joking or not, I'd enjoy watching!
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
Doesn't negatively affect her? Well, you can hardly argue that its very hygienic. But seriously, I feel safer around depressed or OCD people than people who want a porn star blow job while shitting. The former usually aren't jerks...just very, very sad or annoying. Oh I know...just like ME! The funny thing though...you've worked yourself into a modern enlightened position of having to defend a blumpkin fan against judgmental assholes...note though that this argument has never been about his right to do it, or his right to talk about it...it's about whether or not it would be a sign of emotional stuntedness or anti-social tendencies. It's about whether or not he's a jerk for it. So...you aren't defending his right to be appalling...you are arguing that blumpkin enthusiast is not even a disgusting pig! So, in the end, the burden of proof is on you to change my mind about what my experience has taught me...people who fantasize or do the "fratty" jokes about degrading women usually are really jerks. Ah, but you'll invoke all the logistical and rhetorical principles about how the burden of proof is on ME and you aren't obligation to proof my allegation wrong...blah blah. That's a court of law. Here, there aren't ANY obligations. I'm not obligated to prove I'm write, nor accept burden of proof...and you aren't really either. You aren't even obligated to argue! There is no framework...I just assume that since you are wasting your time bitching at me, that you care to convince me I'm wrong...so if you care to convince me, burden of proof is on you.
George's trifecta more than anything that involves coding.
FYI--the link to the Aeron page is broken; it should be here. Apologies!
Couldn't you simplify that to just
Absence of boss?
If enithin kan gow rong it whil. (Murfey)
You get such a raging hardon bitching and ranting about how he made a joke about blowjobs and toilets, and he's the disgusting pig?
2. Absence of a boss who threatens you with loss of employment if you refuse to work more than 40 hours per week.
Failing that, a drill, electrical tape and a coping saw.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
2 AM, decent weed & Frank Zappa
You do know he's probably joking...
right?
I read a book about animation once. Don't remember the name of it, but it was by the guy who did "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". Anyway, he was learning his craft at the feet of various masters and he asked one of them one time what kind of music he listened to, and the guy said he didn't listened to music when he worked because he could only do one thing at a time. The writer went on to say that he came to agree with the master, and mentioned assistants who were doing grunt work like 'in-betweeners' making stupid mistakes when they were listening to music through their headphones.
I used to listen to music sometimes while coding, and eventually I realized it was more distraction than help.
In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice they're different. (Yogi Berra & A. Einstein)
I just finished a course in psychology at school. Psychologists say the optimum state for something like this is a moderate state of arousal. Too laid-back and nothing will get done, too amped up and you won't get much done, the middle course of aroused, but not too much so, is the best for quality output. That's why breaks are important - your quality goes down after sitting too long at the keyboard (i.e. becomes too laid back).
If you want to write code, you gotta snort a load; cocaine.
If you don't prototype, you better unit test twice; cocaine.
Write that line, write that line, write that line; cocaine.
If your routine is hung, and you have to debug; cocaine.
When your coding is done, but it still will not run; cocaine.
Write that line, write that line, write that line; cocaine.
If your SCC's gone, and you want to write on; cocaine.
Forget this fact - you can't get it back; cocaine.
Write that line, write that line, write that line; cocaine!
Worked for Disney (see http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/drugs.asp).
Apologies to Eric.
It takes place starting at about 45 minutes after the end of my lunch break. My blood sugar is high and I'm at my desk with a cup of hot coffee, a cup of ice cold Mountain Dew and a small package of cookies. This can last anywhere from one to three hours. The period ends when I need to take my afternoon poop break. I write larger volumes of code and higher quality code when I'm in my zone.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
had two identical sisters.
Well, you can hardly argue that its very hygienic.
Neither is:
- Neglecting to wash your hands after you pee
- Eating food past its expiration date
- Getting bitten by mosquitoes
etc etc...
I'm not saying I agree with those actions, but are you actually saying you're morally outraged by them?
The funny thing though...you've worked yourself into a modern enlightened position of having to defend a blumpkin fan against judgmental assholes...
The funny thing is, you're making the blumpkin fan look good. Or worse, he's making you look disgusting.
note though that this argument has never been about his right to do it, or his right to talk about it...it's about whether or not it would be a sign of emotional stuntedness or anti-social tendencies.
To suggest that it is, is simply moronic.
Take your initial assumption that the girl is doing this against her will. What if she's not? Then who's antisocial?
It's kind of like assuming that kids who play Quake are obviously planning a school shooting.
In other words, you're taking something that's completely unrelated (a sexual preference) and using it to judge someone you've never met, and hardly know anything about -- that is, prejudice.
So...you aren't defending his right to be appalling...you are arguing that blumpkin enthusiast is not even a disgusting pig!
How's this different than taking the same stance about, say, homosexuality?
I find a man sticking his penis in another man's rectum to be quite disgusting. I'd never do it. But people generally accept gays now -- it's not immoral, it doesn't say anything else about a person.
Put another way: I also find avocados to be quite disgusting. They're slimy and green -- just nasty -- I enjoy spinach, though. You may hate spinach and love avocados. Does that make you a disgusting pig, or me a disgusting pig?
No, it means we have different tastes.
Also:
Learn 2 Paragraph, noob.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
words can never hurt thee...if I'm wrong about his character, no one's worse for the wear.
It still makes you a prejudiced cunt.
Oh, and yes, words can hurt people. That's why we have laws for things like slander, libel, and discrimination.
and now perhaps I also called someone on defending something appalling and brushing it off as a joke when in fact they are into it.
If so, what does that accomplish?
By the way, I found that funny, and I personally find scat disgusting. Had to take a stool sample recently, had to keep leaving the room for air...
Not that it matters, given at least 5 mods found it funny, and at least one found your comment to be trollish.
it lets me know who the fucked up people are.
I'll give you a hint.
Look in the mirror.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
or any other optional holiday time that everyone takes. The office is completely empty, you can think for hours at a time without background noise. (Of course, ever since the family came along this is no longer an option for me, either.)
I used to co-write 'bespoke code' at my last job.
As long as I understood what was wanted, I was happy.
My goal was to write code that worked correctly, ran as fast as possible, and was easy to modify and upgrade--time is money as they say.
As long as I was someplace comfortable, and reasonably quiet (and smoke-free if at all possible) I was happy coding. Listening to movie OSTs (mostly symphonic ones and not the more popular 'songtracks') and techno on headphones was a plus.
1. A sinecure
2. "Working" from home
3. A fat paycheck
You don't get these coding though. Think an ex-politician, a diplomat, or perhaps CEO of a failed bank.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
How about? Quit! Quit! Quit!
Dude. Think about it. Self-employment is not hard. Just move to India, South America or some other really low overhead area and start hittin' up eLance.com. With a low overhead, its all profit!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery
I'd like to buy homeland for our 10 million people. http://twitter.com/mahadiga
1. Ctrl
2. Alt
3. Delete
A "trifecta" is a wager whereas you win money if you correctly bet on the way the top three "performers" finish. So, suppose there is a horse race and horses Joe, Bob, and Sam finish 1,2,3 and you bet on Joe, Bob, and Sam to finish in that order YOU WIN!
The "trifecta" bet is used in greyhound, horses, and jai-alai. There are variants such as "boxing" and "wheeling" but these are advanced lessons...
For me its more than three things so I will list them in order. A bong (with the finest chronic, I tend to get "in the zone" not zoned out), Dr. Pepper, anything from Willy Wonka. South park or music (I prefer to listen to rap/hiphop, R&B, reggae. but when I am coding I prefer techno or classical. just gets my neurons firing) and frequent breaks. It may sound unproductive but I find that some of my best ideas come to me after just clearing my mind for a few minutes, walking around getting some fresh air. Sometimes I just over think the problem and the solution is simpler than I think, which is why taking frequent breaks works for me. Some of the best code I have ever written was not when I was working, but at home working on my own projects, when I could just do whatever, whenever. I believe freedom releases the creative mind.
"We multitask like you breath, I couldn't think as slow as you if I tried"
My trifecta is the following.
1. Absence of a boss whose primary concern is his own promotion.
2. Absence of a boss who threatens you with loss of employment if you refuse to work more than 40 hours per week.
3. Absence of a boss who demands that you echo the party line. You are expected to say, "Yes. The API implementation that I received from department XYZ is wonderful." just because the department is managed by the girlfriend of the CEO.
Judging from point 3 the problem goes beyond the boss and has permeated all through the company.
If that isn't the case and he's just a relatively isolated case...get rid of him? Might take some time and shrewd behavior, but it really isn't all that hard to expose imcompetence.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
1. Fresh coffee
2. Clean & airy environment
3. Judas Priest playing in my earphones
Of course, no humans around for few hundred yards.
I use to think that coding while one's on substances enhances productivity. It does not. Its only a delusion like many others that fill your head once you're intoxicated (or high or whatever).
As a designer, engineer, programmer its best to keep a clear head and steady hands. You can create your code according to your insights & logic perfectly then. For long durations. Thats decent human productivity.
Once the code is tested, bugs are fixed, deliverables delivered and UAT finished - I'll pack off with Sex, Drugs & Rock n Roll to my own destination. But only after everything is in order.
Programming is serious business and fun too. Let's not confuse it with some macho endeavour trying to bring the gates of hell down.
These days, there isn't much chance of that happening. After all, it is a "workers market". There are so many jobs coming here from India and S.E. Asia, combined with a real shortage of available talent, managers aren't willing to risk annoying anyone.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
1: Never going to happen. EVERYBODY wants a promotion or better wages or whatever. That's why you do your job good and some extra here and there.
2: That is legally not allowed. You could sue for some type of harassment (talk to your lawyer, I don't know what exactly). Get it in writing if at all possible.
3: Again, there is no reason you have to do this. If you actually do this you might find yourself without a job faster than you think as that API might just kill the company. If there is no way around 2 or 3 then leave, the economic crisis is only a perception created by the media, I find that if you are actually a good programmer/sysadmin/whatever you won't be without a job for too long.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Of the factors listed, time of day is the most important to me. I generally have a horrible time maintaining my concentration around 3-4 PM (actually, I have a hard time even staying awake in the office around that time), but I can code like a ninja at all other times of the day, particularly in the morning. I hit my peak concentration at about 11 AM. That goes not just for coding, but for taking exams, giving presentations, playing at concerts, etc.
(There is irony that I'm posting this on Slashdot @ 11:20 AM)
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Money, Time, and Quality.
-- Each tock of the Planck clock is a new world and here we are still life. --
No wonder you feel the need to post as an AC. Because you're clearly making yourself out to be a complete spastic tit.
Who shit in your Cheerios (while getting a blow job obviously) to make you grumpy?
Having my Linux netbook boot up before I'm done taking a dump while sipping Vodka.
My Trifecta would be:
1.) Booze (Ballmer Peak = hilarious)
2.) A fat sack of some sticky CA Chronic
3.) Pizza, chips, & chocolate all mandatory
To take it up a notch, add:
4.) Red Bull (or other caffeine stimulant)
5.) Loud and offensive rap music
(damn if feels good to be a gangsta!)
The term Nirvana roughly translated means "to extinguish ignorance". I think it would be safe to say the opposite term would be more appropriate in this context.
Easily done!
Do a 35 hour week, then see point 2. Or say the API is a crock, then see point 3.
Slight negative side effect: absence of salary.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Clearly, that'd be from the Qur'an.