Finding a Personal Coding Trifecta 188
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."
yum, stereotypes! (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow, way to avoid reinforcing stereotypes there, Eric!
Re:my trifecta (Score:5, Insightful)
hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
simple (Score:5, Insightful)
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? (Score:5, Insightful)
Go away...
No, seriously, just go away...
Re:trifecta (Score:3, Insightful)
Whatever makes you happy is the important part.
And writing good code will make your life easier than writing sloppy code since the sloppy code will haunt you forever.
Just being able to avoid those 02:00 in the morning calls the day before an important event accounts for a lot. A clear conscience makes you sleep well and have time over for your favorite actions. If that resolves to painting, making love or hunting that's a different issue.
TRIfecta? (Score:4, Insightful)
How about...QUIET?? (Score:4, Insightful)
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:hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Some folks don't need a zone (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
I would also add... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:my trifecta (Score:2, Insightful)
I agree.
my coding trifecta is more like: 3 Pints of Guinness, 2 joints. and actually there isn't a third part to it.
Re:my trifecta (Score:1, Insightful)
99% of blowjobs I've seen in porn are awful. I'll take a cute girl who knows what she's doing over a clueless porn starlet any day.
Re:How I would like to acheive Nerdvana (Score:3, Insightful)
So let me sum it up... 1) No accountability 2) Not a team player and too good to help others and 3) Not willing to interact with non-technical people.
Okay, then! Remind me never to hire you.