Ask HN: What do you do when you're waiting for something to run?

#1

Post by colobas » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 3:57 PM UTC

I find that when I need to wait for something to run (a compilation, a jupyter notebook cell, a script, etc) is when I'm most prone to embark on something distracting.

The common train-of-thought is "I'm just gonna check _____ for a second while this runs." And then it's never just a second.

What do you do?

Re: Ask HN: What do you do when you're waiting for something to run?

#2

Post by bryanrasmussen » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 4:06 PM UTC

I believe the industry standard is "have sword fights in the hall" https://xkcd.com/303/

Re: Ask HN: What do you do when you're waiting for something to run?

#3

Post by seattle_spring » Fri, May 01, 2020, 12:32 AM UTC

Go make coffee for 10 minutes, and then come back to realize that the thing I meant to run was waiting for input via a prompt before actually starting.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do when you're waiting for something to run?

#4

Post by statquontrarian » Fri, May 01, 2020, 1:17 AM UTC

1. Document the things I'm doing in a wiki to save future time.

2. Research ways to optimize/automate the long-running task.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do when you're waiting for something to run?

#5

Post by duxup » Fri, May 01, 2020, 2:39 AM UTC

I have the same problem.

When working from home I have some weights on my desk, I do a few quick exercises.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do when you're waiting for something to run?

#6

Post by tharidlynn » Fri, May 01, 2020, 3:38 AM UTC

I work from home now and I solve rubik cube, randomly strum my guitar, and juggle balls while waiting for something to run.

I used to check random stuff on the internet ( social media , HN, reddit or youtube) but I found them very distractive. So, I ended up picking something that are not related to internet.