The interruptible programmer
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The interruptible programmer
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Re: The interruptible programmer
#2I've always been an 'interruptible programmer'. While my bosses have really loved it, they pay for it by my being less productive.
You see, the human mind can only hold so many concepts in active thought at the same time. It's somewhere around 7. If paying attention to your surroundings is 1, there's only 6 left. If someone -happens- in the surroundings, there's at least 1 more gone. If something -interesting- happens, there 2 or 3 more as you go off on tangents thinking about them.
Yeah, half your mind is taken with your surroundings at times.
My solution is to pay attention to my surroundings when working on easy projects, and for projects that -really- need my attention, I put in earphones and block everything out. I have a few different music sets that I've heard so many times and/or they have a sound that doesn't ask my brain to process them.
With my earphones in, people have to yell (or call my phone or IM) to get my attention. I don't check even check my email.
I usually don't have to resort to the earphones. One line of thinking is that if it takes all your ability to write the code, you couldn't possibly fix bugs in it. You should be writing well below your ability so that you can fix it when it breaks. This usually means the code is easier to read as well. But some things are just innately complex, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Re: The interruptible programmer
#3I've always been an 'interruptible programmer'. While my bosses have really loved it, they pay for it by my being less productive. You see, the human mind can only hold so many concepts in active thought at the same time. It's somewhere around 7. If paying attention to your surroundings is 1, there's only 6 left. If someone -happens- in the surroundings, there's at least 1 more gone. If something -interesting- happen…
Yeah, I work that way as well. I have a nice pair of noise canceling headphones, and my co-workers (non-programmers) will have to tap on my shoulder or speak loudly for me to hear them.
They're often perplexed if I'm late to a meeting or aren't up to date on the latest email. I generally keep Outlook closed which manages my calendar and email.
Re: The interruptible programmer
#4I used to only be able to program in large blocks of time also.
Then one day I thought about the 66 minutes I 'waste' each day on the train to university; 33 minutes per trip. I started to take out my laptop as soon as I get on the train and try to work on programming. Initially I had very little done, by the time I really start programming it was time to get off.
But now, 3 or 4 months into it, I seem to manage to get something done every time; I'd say now the 33 minutes is worth at least 20 minutes of productivity if I had been spending it in a 4 hour block.
Re: The interruptible programmer
#5IME, the most useful tip is "maintaining the context outside your head". The article recomends a "running comment". I use a notebook, but anyway I find it efective.
Re: The interruptible programmer
#6I've always been an 'interruptible programmer'. While my bosses have really loved it, they pay for it by my being less productive. You see, the human mind can only hold so many concepts in active thought at the same time. It's somewhere around 7. If paying attention to your surroundings is 1, there's only 6 left. If someone -happens- in the surroundings, there's at least 1 more gone. If something -interesting- happen…
How did you decide on "somewhere around 7" concepts in thought at once? What counts as a "concept"? If you are referring to the 1956 George Miller paper "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two", then that really has little to do with "concepts".
See Tufte: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0...
"That essay reviews psychological experiments that discovered people had a hard time remembering more than about 7 unrelated pieces of really dull data all at once."
Re: The interruptible programmer
#7I've always been an 'interruptible programmer'. While my bosses have really loved it, they pay for it by my being less productive. You see, the human mind can only hold so many concepts in active thought at the same time. It's somewhere around 7. If paying attention to your surroundings is 1, there's only 6 left. If someone -happens- in the surroundings, there's at least 1 more gone. If something -interesting- happen…
This is why I sit at the desk with a pen and paper and my computer. When I'm trying to work something out, I write stuff out and make sure that my plans (and the stuff I have to keep track of) gets down onto paper. Sometimes I even draw a picture. Makes it much easier to refocus after being distracted (I just read my freaking notes). I'm interruptible, very productive, and I can refocus pretty much instantly.
//file this under benefits of a liberal arts education...
Re: The interruptible programmer
#8I've always been an 'interruptible programmer'. While my bosses have really loved it, they pay for it by my being less productive. You see, the human mind can only hold so many concepts in active thought at the same time. It's somewhere around 7. If paying attention to your surroundings is 1, there's only 6 left. If someone -happens- in the surroundings, there's at least 1 more gone. If something -interesting- happen…
It's 3 for lions. That's how lion taming works, the lion attempts to process each of the chair legs as a seperate object and has no mental capacity left to eat you.
Re: The interruptible programmer
#9I have found the Pomodoro technique quite useful. Once I get off my ass to actually start the 25 minute work interval, the conditioning kicks in and concentration appears.
Surprisingly, the first part (just starting) is harder than following through.
Re: The interruptible programmer
#10As I've gotten more programming experience, interruptions have become less and less of a problem. As long as it's something that I've worked on in the last few days, I can hop in and get working pretty quickly. I don't know if my brain has just adapted to the environments I've been working in, or if I'm just a better programmer now. Maybe I've just become really good at ignoring people while seeming to be paying attention.
But taking a couple weeks off from a project really sets me back. It could take can entire day to get back up to speed.