Every time you code and listen to music, should you be paying the musician for the performance? I say yes.
Only if I get paid every time someone runs the code.
"Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
61–70 of 96 posts
Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the life of me I don't understand why cubicles are the norm for developer offices. There have been numerous studies showing the productivity effects of open offices vs individual offices. And many more studies on the importance of concentration and the destructive power of interruptions. Do people value programmer productivity so little that they're willing to throw so much of it away to save a few dollars in rea…
I've tried having this conversation so many times at my current place! We don't just have an open plan office, we have a huge open plan office with a mix of developers, client facing staff, managers, secretaries, phones going off, people wandering through to the kitchen or toilets, small meetings going on around tables.... It's a terrible work environment for actually getting to focus on what you're doing, yet any su…
Does that head honcho sit out there with all of you, or does he/she have a private office? Just curious.
Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Peopleware was a beneficial book, but these stories need corroboration. I talked to one of the authors at a conference once, told him how much I loved one of their stories (that the Dutch East India Company, once the greatest corporation in the world, still exists with a mere 50 employees who do nothing but fill out paperwork) and asked him where they'd found it. "Did we say that?" he asked. Yes, absolutely, I said.…
Thanks for mentioning that. I scroll to the bottom of the book and got this for reference: "The Cornell experiment was never documented and has thus taken on the status of hearsay evidence except for those of us who were there. For a concurring view of the effect of music on concentration, see Jaynes, 1976, pp. 367-68."
"Concurring view" indeed, not an experimental study. What a weird thing for them to cite!
http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Consciousness-Breakdown-Bicamer...
Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
#64"During the 1960s, researchers at Cornell University conducted a series of tests on the effects of working with music. They polled a group of computer science students and divided the students into two groups, those who liked to have music in the background while they worked (studied) and those who did not. Then they put half of each group together in a silent room, and the other half of each group in a different roo…
I can believe that. I listen to music (generally sans lyrics) only when I'm doing stuff that's relatively repetitive and un-taxing.
I don't think it makes me more productive, but it does make me happier.
Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
#65I don't listen to music with words. My brain's language processing unit goes into action, and disrupts my ability to code. Instrumentals, electronic music, or classical music are fine.
I'm the same way, except that it gets hard for me to listen even to instrumental music at times.
In general, I prefer silence when concentrating.
Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
#66I'm surprised hip hop isn't on the chart at all. Am I the only one who listens to it while coding? I switch between that and hard rock. I've never really had any problems with words in music being a distraction. I read somewhere that singing and talking/writing are two completely separate parts of the brain, which is why some stroke or brain damage are able to sing before they can talk. Also, I prefer speakers to hea…
I like to listen to older funk. wefunkradio.com is my go-to online music source.
Classical is good too, but lately I've not chosen that much.
Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
#67I was never able to listen to music while coding until someone here on HN suggested creating an Abakus channel on Pandora. Now it's Pavlovian, and I find I'm able to get into flow sooner. Even if it's psychological, I'll take it.
You're welcome! :D http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1525865 (may have been me)
Yep- that's the one. Thanks!
Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
#68I don't listen to music with words. My brain's language processing unit goes into action, and disrupts my ability to code. Instrumentals, electronic music, or classical music are fine.
Exactly, but I also throw in music from languages that I don't understand. I'm loving Korean and Japanese pop at the moment.
Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
#69"During the 1960s, researchers at Cornell University conducted a series of tests on the effects of working with music. They polled a group of computer science students and divided the students into two groups, those who liked to have music in the background while they worked (studied) and those who did not. Then they put half of each group together in a silent room, and the other half of each group in a different roo…
I agree that silence is probably better than any sort of music for programming. Unfortunately, that's not the choice programmers often have to deal with. Usually, its a choice between music and the usual office distractions (other people's conversations, the noise of people moving around, etc.) In those cases any sort of music to block out background noise is a godsend. Having headphones on also signals to visitors t…
Headphones and white noise can serve the same purpose as silence.
Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
#70I use to work in a noisy office environment where silence wasn't really an option. The best solution was noise canceling headphones and a white noise generator. I now prefer this over silence any day.
Here's a great native Mac OS app for that (source available):
http://code.google.com/p/noisier/
I has White, Pink, and Brown noise with an adjustable filter.