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."

Comments

My Trifecta: No Boss, No Boss, No Boss

[reporter]

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.

three for me

[dmomo]

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.

Here's mine:

[Anonymous Coward]

1. 11 pm.
2. Good headphones.
3. Good music.

My Three

[SirLurksAlot]

1. Caffeine
2. Groove Salad
3. Headphones
4. Bonus: A deadline

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.

My 3

[Daimanta]

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.

Mine

[thatskinnyguy]

1. Whole pot of coffee. If said coffee pot is empty there will be a break while coffee is being brewed.
2. Two packs of Marlboro Menthols. That is in case one pack runs out. If I can't smoke at my desk, the work is going to be shit because my concentration will be broken by a jonesin for a fix and a trip outside.
3. My desk chair that was fashioned from the driver's seat of my last car. It's made to be sat in for hours unlike normal assless desk chairs.

Re:Some folks don't need a zone

[$0.02]

Only the mediocre are always at their best. (Jean Giraudoux)