Ask YC: What music do you listen to when hacking?

#1

Post by moog » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 5:34 PM UTC

What music, if any, do you listen to when hacking? Do you find it helps you concentrate or is it just a distraction?

Re: Ask YC: What music do you listen to when hacking?

#2

Post by ejs » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 6:34 PM UTC

All kinds, the only time I avoid music and keep silence is when I have to do reading/writing stuff. Probably the same reason I find reading and writing to be more of a chore and coding/designing more enjoyable.

Re: Ask YC: What music do you listen to when hacking?

#3

Post by xirium » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 6:59 PM UTC

Dup. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=61831 and http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=99936

Re: Ask YC: What music do you listen to when hacking?

#4

Post by doubleplus » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 7:56 PM UTC

Trance! http://s-torm.com/forum/dload.php?action=category&cat_id...

Re: Ask YC: What music do you listen to when hacking?

#5

Post by kajecounterhack » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 7:58 PM UTC

The Feel Good Initiative http://thefeelgood.com/

Found it here on YC, actually.

Re: Ask YC: What music do you listen to when hacking?

#6

Post by Electro » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 8:13 PM UTC

ejs wrote: post #2

All kinds, the only time I avoid music and keep silence is when I have to do reading/writing stuff. Probably the same reason I find reading and writing to be more of a chore and coding/designing more enjoyable.

Go for instrumental music, it doesn't activate the part of your verbal part of your brain. Essentially to hear singing (or talking) your brain mimics it, however when you're trying to read/write you've got two processes and only one processor to put it through. You can struggle through, but not nearly as well as running them solo.

Also, just go onto TPB or usenet and download some Beethoven or Wagner. It's 100% legal, no copyrights exist on them and even if they did they're so old it'd be void anyway. Even the BBC offered them up for free at some point, they were surprisingly good quality too.

I learnt this a long time ago when I was working doing reviews. When you spend 10 hours writing reviews, you need something to listen to or you're going to start shooting kids and spearing dogs for making the slightest noise.