I started out in system administration and network engineering before switching to programming. I once had a dream that my cigarette needed an IP address before I could smoke it.
I had a similar dream about my pants once.
Ask HN: Does anyone dream of code?
41–50 of 146 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone dream of code?
#42It happens all the time, not particularly because I am stuck on a problem. Happens the most when learning something new and your mind wanders into a playful state.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone dream of code?
#43Try reading fiction before bed.
I used to spend time thinking about code before sleep. The long term effects is the larger problem. Not giving your mind time to do something else will eventually lead to burn out.
Credits to Tim Ferris for this routine.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone dream of code?
#44Sometimes when I'm stuck with a hard problem, I find the simple and obvious solution in a dream. This happens most often when the problem is algorithmic.
When I struggle with modeling problems, I often solve them in the trance-like state right before falling asleep. These solutions are much more elegant than what I would be capable of while being fully awake.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone dream of code?
#45I've had this problem before. I dream as a javascript runtime vm, compiling the code as it's thought of. Infinite recursion hurts, literally. Other than that, if I'm lucid of the dream I rarely solve problems, just repeating the same road blocks over and over.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone dream of code?
#46Try reading fiction before bed. I used to spend time thinking about code before sleep. The long term effects is the larger problem. Not giving your mind time to do something else will eventually lead to burn out. Credits to Tim Ferris for this routine.
Ha, I've never ever been able to start reading a good fiction
book before sleeping without either ending up finishing the book and not having slept at all or passing out from exhaustion in the middle of the night after I notice that I've reread the same line 3-4 times.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone dream of code?
#47When I'm really in the weeds of a problem, then yes, I do.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone dream of code?
#48Just two nights ago, my wife came to join me, which woke me into a half sleep. I immediately grabbed something on my nightstand that reminds me of her and thrust it into the air, then I started to try to explain (somewhat incomprehensibly, apparently) the unit tests that would run against her. That's not a euphemism and the waving the thing in the air, I think, made me believe that her unit tests would run first, so I could get back to sleep sooner.
Needless to say, she's still laughing at my antics!
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone dream of code?
#49Once during a bout of fever I dreamt I was a running Pascal program. Believe me, it's no fun being a computer.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone dream of code?
#50I've been doing this for 30 years. Why? Because I work in such a way to make it happen. What you call a problem, I embrace as a gift. Of all the things I've discussed here at Hacker News over the years, this is probably the #1 subject. Most programmers have the opposite problem of you: they have trouble turning their minds on . I always turn my computer off several hours before bed. The last thing I do every night is…
A lot of programmers I respect like to work on printed out code, and it's something I enjoy as well. Furthermore I'd love if we could work completely offline, with pen and paper.
> Furthermore I'd love if we could work completely offline, with pen and paper.
Why is that? I loathe writing code on paper, seems like it'd be a serious regression.