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?

Oblig

[sys.stdout.write]

You only need one thing.

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.

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.

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: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.

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.

Re:Some folks don't need a zone

[$0.02]

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

Trifecta? I didn't know Jessica Alba

[ClosedSource]

had two identical sisters.