I talk to myself during work most of the time (but usually it happens in the privacy of my head only). Or better, I talk to the monitor in front of me as if it would help debug something faster :) ... well sometimes it does, actually.
But when i become very frustrated with the piece of code i am debugging, I usually say something out loud as well.... swearing mostly :D
Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?
#32Talking to yourself is a symptom of stress. Because your working memory is too populated by stressors in order to keep the entire "conversation" inside your head, you externalize it. Think of it as paging out. The only inconvenience is that it can bother people. Well, maybe there are other inconveniences, too, but I'm not aware of any studies that suggest externalized verbal problem solving creates worse results than…
> Talking to yourself is a symptom of stress.
Not always. I talk to myself all the time whether I'm happy, sad, stressed, relaxed, whatever. I just seem to solve problems better when I explain them to myself out loud -- see "rubber ducking": http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RubberDucking
Re: Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?
#33if they file clean code, solve problems, are positive in their nature and make the people around them great they can marry their their iPad.
some of the best people startup people, at least in my experience, are "unique."
Embrace the odd, create the future.
Re: Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?
#34I talk to myself, even when not working. So yes. He's just special.
Sometimes if you're eager to say something to real people, you may talk to yourself (ADHD people do it). If you're standing right there and he's talking to himself, then he either doesn't know you're there, or it's just helping him think.
Re: Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?
#35Sometimes people with dislexia or other reading problems will read aloud. Sometimes, the only way they can process the content is by hearing it.
Re: Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?
#36I talk to myself, even when not working. So yes. He's just special. Sometimes if you're eager to say something to real people, you may talk to yourself (ADHD people do it). If you're standing right there and he's talking to himself, then he either doesn't know you're there, or it's just helping him think.
Erm... I have ADHD and I don't do it.
Re: Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?
#37We had an employee once who essentially narrated himself. For instance, if he was installing the latest build of our software to test the installer, he might say something like this:
I'm putting the floppy in the drive. I see it on the
desktop. I'm double clicking it. I see the new
installer. Now I'm opening RegEdit. I'm finding the
keys for $OurProduct, and deleting them to test a fresh
install. Now I'm double clicking the installer. I see
a dialog box. I'm typing in my product key, and hitting
the install button...
OK, now I'm watching Bob make a new release for me to test.
His compile finished, and he's copying to a floppy. He's
giving me the floppy. I'm going to go test it...
Re: Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?
#38Is he doing some kind of rubber duck debugging? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging I don't talk to myself, but sometimes by simply talking aloud about my problems to my peers I can flesh out a solution to a hard problem. I have seen other programmers talk to themselves to find a solution when they're stuck, and it seems to work quite well.
What tends to happen with me is I'll hit a snag that I can't seem to figure out or debug myself. So I fire up gmail and write a note to one of the contractors who does odds and ends stuff for me.
I describe the problem in decent detail and ask when he/she is available to fix it. Send.
Then a few minutes later, the solution appears in my head, I go solve the problem myself, and send an apology note to my developer.
Re: Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?
#39Sounds like the newest in agile techniques - pair programming for one. Write a book and start your consulting career now.
Re: Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?
#40I talk to myself, even when not working. So yes. He's just special. Sometimes if you're eager to say something to real people, you may talk to yourself (ADHD people do it). If you're standing right there and he's talking to himself, then he either doesn't know you're there, or it's just helping him think.
Erm... I have ADHD and I don't do it.
Well there are different types of ADHD. It's related to the fact that ADHD people have bad working memory. So practicing how they would say stuff is a way to get it out before they forget it.