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Why Programming Rituals Work
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon May 18, 2009 03:41 PM
from the still-waiting-for-the-stars-to-align-to-write-my-super-code dept.
from the still-waiting-for-the-stars-to-align-to-write-my-super-code dept.
narramissic writes "Programmers may not think that their rituals are unusual, but if you swear that your code is less buggy if you recite it aloud or you prepare for coding by listening to certain music, don't be surprised if you get a couple sideways glances. In a recent ITworld article, Issac Kelly, Lead Developer at Servee.com, explains his routine and why it works: 'To me, programming is really the 'last mile' to getting something done. When I do the planning and specifications, I go on lots of walks, take lots of time with my wife, and really do as little work in front of the computer as possible. The more I plan (in my head, on paper, on a whiteboard) the less I program; and all of my rituals are to that end.' His ritual goes like this: 'Before sitting down to a coding session, he gets a big glass of water, takes everything off of his desk, and closes out all programs and e-mail, keeping open only his code editor. The office door is shut, and some sort of music is playing ('typically an instrumental only, like my 'Explosions in the Sky' pandora station,' says Kelly).'"
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Finding a Personal Coding Trifecta 188 comments
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."
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I can completely understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
Before I undertake any task I do absolutely nothing. For about a day I will just idle around thinking about the problem. Kicking around one solution and another.... And I keep doing this until I am happy...
Re:I can completely understand... (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, sometimes I fall asleep on the toilet when I do this.
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Re:I can completely understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
You *think* before you code? WEIRDO!
In all seriousness, when I worked for a bank, I would go outside with a legal pad and start drawing out the logic in terms of pictures. Away from the phone. Away from the co-workers.
At lunch one time, a coworker half jokingly said I only work 3 hours a day. My manager was there and remarked "Yeah, but he gets more done in those three hours than you do all day".
I tried to keep from smiling... however, in all seriousness, coding is 30% of programming. too many coders consider themselves programmers.
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Re:I can completely understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
You should seriously consider giving your manager a raise.
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Re:I can completely understand... (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, considering his orientation, I might have.... but I really prefer not to think about it :)
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Re:I can completely understand... (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, well, not all signs of appreciation are monetary :).
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Re:I can completely understand... (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, considering his orientation
He's Asian?
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Strategy vs tactics (Score:3, Insightful)
You can run just as hard and fast as you like. Doesn't do you much good if it's in the wrong direction.
Re:I can completely understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
I tried to keep from smiling... however, in all seriousness, coding is 30% of programming. too many coders consider themselves programmers.
A lot depends on deadlines. If you have 3 things that needs to be done and committed by tomorrow, then there's going to be a tendency towards hackery. If you've got one thing that the company wants you to work on until it's finished, then you need to be more of a thinker. Programming's all about tradeoffs, and deciding which tradeoff happens isn't always the responsibility of the coder.
Of course, most of the time management doesn't even realize that a tradeoff is being made. There's a breakdown in communication somewhere and most managers don't even realize that by pushing the deadline to be shorter they're asking for more work in the future and more bugs.
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Re:I can completely understand... (Score:4, Funny)
If you have 3 things that needs to be done and committed by tomorrow, then there's going to be a tendency towards hackery. If you've got one thing that the company wants you to work on until it's finished, then you need to be more of a thinker.
I bet Duke Nukem Forever team members are all philosophers, by now...
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Re:I can completely understand... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's one reason I prefer to charge clients for the job than the hour. Because like the author, by the time I sit down to code, I've worked out precisely what I want to do. When I'm writing code in the evening, I might be reading slashdot, twitter and all that, but I'm quite frequently also buzzing code around in my head. I can almost feel the things forming, juggling around 2 different approaches and letting the brain work out which way it likes better.
It means that when I sit down, the code is more like typing.
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Re:I can completely understand... (Score:4, Insightful)
A master does nothing, but leaves nothing undone. All of the work is done by not doing.
Allowing your subconscious to design the modules instead of your conscious mind tends to lead towards more consistent results. Most individuals never reach this stage and probably can not relate to what you are describing.
Others here know exactly what you are describing.
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Re:I can completely understand... (Score:5, Funny)
Well...
All the amazing solutions that I've had while asleep or in delerium have always seemed really good for the 30 minutes of furious waking coding... before the "What the f**k is this garbage? It will never work..." gets shouted out.
My subconscious thinks this is hilarious.
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Re:I can completely understand... (Score:4, Funny)
http://xkcd.com/323/
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"Doing nothing" is not nothing... (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's a couple of long out-of-fashion words; contemplation and reflection.
There is no "process" -- not change requests, not planning documents, not maintenance windows, not design documents, and for damn sure no flavor-of-the-month buzzword -- that can replace someone with a brain thinking the problem through.
The problem with this is that it exposes the MBAs for the empty suits they are. Our "business team" -- salesmen with glorified titles -- sit through every meeting bloviating while the engineers get it done. The PMP certs are the worst about it. Me and a customer engineer will put our heads together about something, and decide on a course of action. The PMPs will jump all over it and send out emails about "deliverable actions items."
One of the other engineers will mention something, and we'll realize we should take a different approach. While we're getting real work done, the PMPs will barge in demanding to know if that action items has been deliverabled yet, and if not we need to reprioritize our skill sets.
I used to try to explain it to them. We were going to do that, but then we found out this, so were doing something different. I kept getting haughty responses about how they didn't need to know the little tech stuff, they were just managing the project.
One of them went on at huge length about how you didn't have to be a doctor to be a chief of staff at a hospital.
At that point I just began to feel sorry for him. Can you imagine living your life hoping and praying that no one will ever realize that you don't have the first clue about what you're talking about?
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Re:"Doing nothing" is not nothing... (Score:5, Funny)
Posting this for the second time in the past week, because it's apt:
Could you grimace so I know you're working? [dilbert.com]
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AAAAAnd (Score:5, Funny)
There's Slashdot. Even when I do everything else, Slashdot is the final work-preventer.
My rituals (in order, of course): (Score:5, Funny)
1. Make a cup of coffee: Community New Orleans blend, one sugar, hazelnut creamer.
2. Read reddit.
3. Check social status sites: facebook, twitter, etc.
4. Read CNN.
5. Read email.
6. Catch up with coworkers.
7. Juggle a bit.
8. Put on headphones. Go to last.fm and hunt for a station that fits my current mood.
9. Check reddit again.
10. Go to lunch.
11. Read email.
12. Check reddit again.
13. Update to-do list.
14. Check icanhazcheezburger, etc.
15. Pick different last.fm station.
Re:My rituals (in order, of course): (Score:5, Funny)
I'm willing to bet that you make at least 6 figures with a job description like that.
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Re:My rituals (in order, of course): (Score:5, Funny)
And after all this, then - ONLY THEN - are you finally ready to post on Slashdot.
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Was there a question here? (Score:2)
My code works better (Score:5, Funny)
...when I make sure to release it when most of the testing group is on vacation. Vastly cuts down on the initial bug list, let me tell you.
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Programming happens in the mind (Score:5, Insightful)
The key to good software is contemplation. You can feel the social pressure at the workplace to be typing all the time, but it's wrong to give in. If they want someone who's banging on his keyboard all the time, let them hire a typist.
How is this a ritual? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, some of what the article talks about is a ritual, but the planning process isn't a ritual at all. Its a process. One that usually works pretty well, I must add. The less time you spend coding, the better your product is usually going to be. That said, knowing when to put down the whiteboard is sometimes important too.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Duke Nukem Forever had this problem. They spent so much time saying "THIS GAME IS GOING TO BE SO AWESOME" that they never wrote any code!
Re:How is this a ritual? (Score:5, Funny)
There's even a simple proof of that: all bugs come from coding. Therefore, the less time you spend coding, the less bugs you'll produce :-).
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Programming is religious because... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Rituals help focus the mind (Score:4, Insightful)
I can fully understand using such rituals. It helps you get in the right head space for writing code. It gets you focused on the task and flush out all the other crap trying to get your attention.
I have found that if I am not in the right frame of mind before starting, the code takes much longer or is just plain wrong. If I am in the right head space, the task is quick and done before you know it.
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It's not just coding, either -- anything requiring concentration and analytical thought benefits from being in the right frame of mind.
One of the tricks I learned from a former boss was to identify what gets me "in the mood", and then practice at streamlining the process until I could turn it
Iteration vs planning... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the problem with planning everything too much is that you can't hold all the details in your mind at once, and sometimes your planned approach is not as good as one you come up with later given some time to stew on it (doing nothing).
I think programming is a very iterative process because it is symbolic and non-visual (i.e. not like building something with structures that are easily and intuitively able to grasp their structural and interconnected relationsihps)
Re:Iteration vs planning... (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, if only there was some way of tracking information without keeping at all in your head at once.
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EITS (Score:2)
Sweet, to see one of my fav bands mentioned on Slashdot of all places :-)
Not a ritual! (Score:5, Funny)
Crikey! That's just sensible work organisation. I guess if you find something that works and always do it that way you might call it a ritual. My ritual is to get in the car and go to work every morning... that way I can do, well you know... WORK!
Man, that sounds much better than mine... (Score:2)
I usually just stare at the code until it starts staring back; that's usually about when I realize that it's 6AM and I need to sleep.
time of day (Score:2)
I'm curious if other programmers like to code at night or any other particular times.
Re: (Score:2)
my best code seems to come at about 12-2am. much past 4 and my code sucks unless i'm really in the zone.
Close door (Score:5, Insightful)
"S.. TF.. U!"
I can code with some noise in the room, but I need QUIET when I'm reading a tech spec. I wish I had the ability to mask external stimuli.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Wear Gun Muffs...
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I bought a pair of Etymotic ER6i IEM earphones four years ago and I still consider it one of the best purchases I've ever made. I got them originally so I could listen to my own music at the gym without having the stuff they play there bleed in. They worked so well that I now use them in my cube or occasionally in noisy environments like our lab.
WTF (Score:5, Funny)
I stopped reading right there.
Why programming rituals work ... short answer. (Score:5, Funny)
It's magic.
The key is really preventing useless distractions (Score:3, Insightful)
When you can prevent useless distractions, then you're really ready to go. Of course, I'm posting this on /., which shows me to be something of a hypocrite, but I think the point still a useful one.
Take a shower (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm serious. I find that I solve many of my hardest problems in the shower. Now that I telecommute 100% of the time I'll often just take one, say in the middle of the afternoon, to jump start the solution!
Obviously the shower has nothing to do with the situation, it is the "stepping back" that is important, so find something that works for you, and do it.
Thinking, and moreso drawing is overrated (Score:3, Interesting)
I prefer to work with intuitive models. My "ritual" is as follows:
1. Ponder the problem. Not too hard. Just get a feel for how to solve it.
2. Prototype a solution in some readable language (python?).
3a. If the prototype is horribly broken, scrap it and go back to step 2.
3b. Otherwise, create final solution from lessons learned from prototyping.
A lot of people draw diagrams and flow charts and stuff. But that is stupid and too abstracted from the computer to be all that useful. By making a prototype, you're effectively making an interactive diagram/flowchart. It takes about the same time, and any problems will be immediately obvious.
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