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

[larry bagina]

taking a shit, eating pizza, and a porn-star quality blow job.

Re:my trifecta

[choongiri]

I have mod points, but instead of modding this post funny I'd rather point out that it's actually about 10x more intelligent than the article. How did this garbage get on the front page?

Re:my trifecta

[psychodelicacy]

As a member of the female species, I would like to nominate my trifecta: A healthy and nutritious alfalfa salad; some Evian water (in the branded bottle, of course); and an episode of "Sex and the City" playing in the background.

I mean, get serious. Having a manicure? Whilst trying to type? I'm not gonna let anyone be in my vicinity while I'm coding, let alone some vapid manicurist. Sheesh.

Oblig

[sys.stdout.write]

You only need one thing.

yum, stereotypes!

[Peganthyrus]

(Unless of course you are the rare female coder, but then weâ(TM)d have to replace eating the pastrami sandwich with getting a manicure.)

Wow, way to avoid reinforcing stereotypes there, Eric!

hmm

[greywire]

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.

Re:hmm

[NewbieProgrammerMan]

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.

That's one reason I hate working in a busy office environment: most workplaces seem to encourage people to interrupt each other. There's always a meeting, or a phone call, somebody wanting your attention, or some "emergency" knocking you out of a state in which you can make any progress.

It seems to me that it's a lot easier to get difficult things done at home where I can unplug the phone and internet connection and just work. It's better for others, too--if a good random idea pops into my head, it can sit in my outgoing mailbox queue instead of egging me on to walk over to someone's office/cubicle and interrupting their work.

Some folks don't need a zone

[willoughby]

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.

Re:Some folks don't need a zone

[im_thatoneguy]

Professional: Someone who can do his very best work, even when he doesn't feel like it

n.
1) A fabled mythical creature.
2) A robot.

Re:Some folks don't need a zone

[NewbieProgrammerMan]

If somebody can do their best work at the drop of a hat, no matter how they feel, I'd venture a guess that their best isn't very good.

Re:Some folks don't need a zone

[$0.02]

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

simple

[speedtux]

A few days of a free schedule, no interruptions, and a private, quiet workspace will do the trick for me.

What's the one thing I need to code?

[composer777]

Go away...
No, seriously, just go away...

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.

TRIfecta?

[FlyingSquidStudios]

Why does his trifecta have five points?

How about...QUIET??

[symbolic]

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.

Re:pyschopath

[thetoadwarrior]

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?

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.

Re:pyschopath

[SetupWeasel]

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!

Re:trifecta

[xaxa]

1) Very large glass of water (I'll lose concentration shortly after it runs out)
2) Relative quiet, not many people walking around or making phone calls.
3) My favourite coding music (psytrance or futurepop, depending on my mood)

Also important
4) Knowing I'm unlikely to be disturbed, and that I'm not being watched.
5) No imminent deadline (be that the project deadline, or the told-Ben-I'd-go-to-the-cinema-at-7 deadline).
6) Some fresh air and exercise (cycling to work, and walking round a nearby public garden/park at lunchtime).

I think most important is
0) A good sleep the night before.

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.

Trifecta? I didn't know Jessica Alba

[ClosedSource]

had two identical sisters.