tips needed; dealing with mental block while coding

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Mon, Mar 26, 2007 at 11:20:05PM -0400, tleslie wrote:
> My full time job, oh and I mean full time !is coding (well lately some
> sysadm has creep'd in). 22 years! and counting.
> 
> Things I have done - to make programming fun and easy at all times:
> 
> 1) seating and feeling good while programing. If you are going to
> program for say even only 8 hours a day, for say 40 years ... set aside
> a  $.03 for each of those hours now, and buy, (as i have), a
> $1600.00-$2500.00 super chair, i have essentially a lazy boy recliner
> version of a programmers chair, and am programming in complete comfort
> at about a 45 degree incline. Its such a nice chair that i WANT to be in
> it.
> 2) by same logic as above, set aside another $0.02 and buy a pair of
> dual 22", 24" or 30" monitors so you have a proper programmers sized
> desktop! ok, actually i need four 30 monitors to be comfortable, but I
> am waiting for them to come down in price a bit and also have to
> consider the card(s) and machine to drive them.

Those 30" sure do look nice.  Not sure I would even need more than one
of those.

> 3) try to lose yourself in the programming, and thus program at times
> you will not get interrupted. I find my best times to program are on
> weekend and from midnight to 8am for that reason, however I can alter my
> schedule and even alter my "holidays" to make up the time. 

I have a wife and friends to see on the weekends and evenings, and
coworkers to see during the daytime. :)

> 4) listen to tunes ... for me I always have, as of late, Queensryche
> blaring out of headphones at volumes that make a ipod at "10" seem like
> a whisper .. ok i exaggerate :) but I am rocking to tunes!
> 5) get paid well, not being happy about doing it is a sure way to become
> dejected.

Enjoying what you are working on is probably more important that just
being paid well.  Being paid well helps too if you don't enjoy it, but I
don't think it will last very well.

> 6) use good programming tools that are efficient. I use slickedit, which
> for a linux programmer is a dream. I try to do most programming in one
> super language, i.e. Mono/C#, but at times I have to use C if for kernel
> programming and such.

How can slickedit (whatever that is) possibly beat vim?

> 7) get 2000 calories of exercise everyday, ymmv but get some exercise
> even if not 2000cal worth. try to get at least 20 min. of sweat
> generating exercise at a minimum each day. sitting all day is bad for
> circulation, even on a 2K$! If you bought a 4K$ massage chair that might
> be a different story but again your better off with the exercise
> regardless.

That is probably a very good idea.  Not necesarily easy to get into the
habit though.

> 8) make sure you have an awsome keyboard, I use a split, humped ergo
> with touch pad at thumbs, so no need to reach for the mouse (i.e. no
> reason to be inefficent).

Needing a mouse at all for programming generally means you have
something setup infficiently. :)

> 9) do all the things you were taught in school about modularizing your
> programming tasks, and such. I use "View your mind" a mind mapping tool,
> (http://www.insilmaril.de/vym/)  and export to html, and TaskJuggler  -
> to keep things organized.

Making a list of small things that have to be done in the project so you
can check them off seems nice.  If you think of something while working
on something else, add it to the list rather than getting distracted by
the new idea.

> Having said that, if i had to report to a office and punch a clock, sit
> in a chair they provide for me, and on even a reasonably good system, I
> probably wouldn't be a happy efficient programmer, at least not for a 40
> + year tour.

--
Len Sorensen
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