Music for Programming (2011) • Hacker News Board

Re: Music for Programming (2011)

#111

Post by notkaiho » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:26 PM UTC

rob74 wrote: post #68

coreyp_1 wrote: post #35

Am I the only person who can't listen to anything while coding? My attention goes straight to the music, and I can't concentrate on the task at hand! When I was in high school, my math teacher would play Mozart during tests, claiming it would help us. It would drive me crazy, and I doubt that my grades improved as a result of the distraction. For what it's worth, I have a BMus in Piano Performance. I love music... bu…

For me, it depends: having to hear music from other people drives me crazy, but as long as it's my own music (over headphones of course), it really helps me concentrate. For people who can't listen to music: how about noise generators (e.g. https://mynoise.net/ ) to drown out ambient noise?

Thank you for the mynoise recommendation, this is great!

Re: Music for Programming (2011)

#112

Post by vnorilo » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:26 PM UTC

I don't like listening to music while doing routine tasks where thing A needs to be plumbed to thing B and mistakes should be avoided.

However, when I need by subconscious to scan a vast non-verbal solution space, nothing is quite as good as energetic, information-dense jazz. It helps silence my inner verbal dialogue that just gets in the way.

Some or my mental wires may or may not have been repatched by my conservatory degree.

Re: Music for Programming (2011)

#113

Post by tnorthcutt » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:26 PM UTC

I've also found some of the selections on https://generative.fm/ to be very nice background music for working.

The author's introduction to generative music article (https://medium.com/@metalex9/introduction-to-generative-musi...) is also very interesting.

Re: Music for Programming (2011)

#114

Post by accraze » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

rwnspace wrote: post #25

Just enough slightly obscure things I both like and recognise to make me confident I'll find great new stuff. Cheers. Restraining myself to join in with just a single recommendation - Jan Jelinek's 'Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records' is the record I always post on these kind of threads and it always seems to land well with this crowd. It is probably my favourite example of the genre, and the production is so textured and the…

+1 for Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records. Jan Jelinek's work as Farben is also really great for programming, very organic yet subtle techno.

Re: Music for Programming (2011)

#115

Post by tombert » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

travisjungroth wrote: post #51

coreyp_1 wrote: post #35

Am I the only person who can't listen to anything while coding? My attention goes straight to the music, and I can't concentrate on the task at hand! When I was in high school, my math teacher would play Mozart during tests, claiming it would help us. It would drive me crazy, and I doubt that my grades improved as a result of the distraction. For what it's worth, I have a BMus in Piano Performance. I love music... bu…

I’m guessing music transmits a lot more “information” to you than the average person. It’s hard to have something you love as a background. I love scuba diving. If there was a monitor with rotating images of underwater scenes, I wouldn’t just think it was pretty. I’d be glued to it figuring out where they took the shot, wondering how deep they were and wishing I was there. I’m guessing something similar happens with…

Not the OP, but I think you might be onto something.

I'm not a huge music-theory guy or anything, but it's virtually impossible for me to "tune out" music; I think I subconsciously like to dissect it a bit.

However, if someone were to put on virtually any sporting event on the TV (without announcers and assuming you didn't have a bunch of people cheering or anything like that), it would have almost no affect on me, since I don't really care at all about sports.

Re: Music for Programming (2011)

#116

Post by opminion » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

This has helped me write code as a sole developer in an open plan office of managers.

Unfortunately the corporate filter only lets the last few ones through.

Re: Music for Programming (2011)

#117

Post by jason_slack » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

rpastuszak wrote: post #73

Brain.fm works quite well in my case. It's not distracting and it doesn't sound like pure white noise either. The app is a bit clunky though.

I use Brain.fm daily. I love it.

I also switch to Soma.fm and Di.fm when needed.

Re: Music for Programming (2011)

#118

Post by missjellyfish » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

anon_cow1111 wrote: post #33

missjellyfish wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone with a rather annoying tinnitus, silence freaks the shit out of me. To stay productive, I need music. What kind of music I listen to really depends on my mood. It could be dubstep (Excision, Teminite, PsoGnar, to name a few out of my current dub playlist), various forms of metal (anywhere from After Forever to Xandria, In Flames, you name it); some times even Happy Hardcore / Handsup. Generally, if I'm fee…

Have you ever tried identifying the frequency of your tinnitus and removing that range from your songs(aka notch filtering)? I heard over time it can lessen the effects.

If you play live music as a hobby, you're not exactly getting that. I've made bad decisions in the past; namely playing in an orchestra next to the drums without hearing protection. I can't undo that, and while it wasn't the cause of my tinnitus, it certainly didn't help.

Nowadays I wear in-ear monitoring on stage which helps quite a lot, protection-wise. I've recently read about a study (dunno if it was on hn) where they discovered that vibrations behind the ear lessend the volume of the tinnitus. I am so going to try that if I ever get my hands on such a device.

I still have a very good hearing overall (especially in the base region), so I should not complain.

Re: Music for Programming (2011)

#119

Post by jointpdf » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

Bootwizard wrote: post #6

This is cool, but what makes it "music for programming?" I'd say music for programming is whatever your favorite music is. Everyone has different tastes.

Personally, I like to listen to electronic DJ mixes because a) the music flows together nicely (by design) and b) repetition paces me and gives something for my ADD brain to latch on to (like rapidly bouncing your leg) and c) I don’t get preoccupied trying to DJ for myself.

Here are some sources I like:

Boiler Room (all EDM/dance genres)—https://m.youtube.com/user/brtvofficial/videos?view=0&sort=p...

Anjunadeep (deep house)—https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOftnzGIKwJB1h6ErEcFJTO...

Re: Music for Programming (2011)

#120

Post by basq » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

coreyp_1 wrote: post #35

Am I the only person who can't listen to anything while coding? My attention goes straight to the music, and I can't concentrate on the task at hand! When I was in high school, my math teacher would play Mozart during tests, claiming it would help us. It would drive me crazy, and I doubt that my grades improved as a result of the distraction. For what it's worth, I have a BMus in Piano Performance. I love music... bu…

I'm the same way. My partner is able to do all her homework while listening to music or playing a show in the background. I was somewhat envious, until I looked at some studies that suggest while it's possible, it's not ideal, and can reduce information retention.

As to why some people have an easier time doing it than others, no clue. I have a background in music so I suspect that plays some role. I need absolute silence in order to concentrate.