Ask HN: What do you listen to when coding?

#1

Post by siruva07 » Fri, Aug 13, 2010, 10:03 PM UTC

I'm also a proud N00b learning RoR (via awesome tutorial http://railstutorial.org/book#top)

Need some badass music to code to. Any suggestions, i.e. bands, pandora stations, etc?

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to when coding?

#2

Post by colonelxc » Fri, Aug 13, 2010, 10:12 PM UTC

The key thing for me is something that I know well, so I can tune it out. I still enjoy the music, but once I'm working hard it just becomes white noise.

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to when coding?

#3

Post by chrisclark1729 » Fri, Aug 13, 2010, 10:24 PM UTC

Truth. As much as I love hip-hop, it's not great coding music because there are too many words which draw your focus away.

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to when coding?

#4

Post by what » Fri, Aug 13, 2010, 10:48 PM UTC

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1525445

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to when coding?

#5

Post by mhd » Fri, Aug 13, 2010, 10:57 PM UTC

colonelxc wrote: post #2

The key thing for me is something that I know well, so I can tune it out. I still enjoy the music, but once I'm working hard it just becomes white noise.

Yup, that works for me, too.

Another important factor: Not too many pauses, or I'll catch myself waiting for the music to continue. That rules out a lot of classical music and "serious" prog rock for me.

In the end, it's a lot of middle-of-the-road metal for me, or light prog. Pandora/last.fm stations for Iron Maiden or the Alan Parsons Project work pretty well.