Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Music for Programming

musicforprogramming.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 268 posts

Re: Music for Programming

#121

Post by ISO-morphism »

silisili wrote: post #54

I've always described myself as a person with zero ability to multitask. Always have been, always will be. Every time I cook, my wife about has a panic attack watching me fumble around, forgetting things, looking for things, oh god that's burning, etc. Back on topic, I absolutely cannot listen to music with words when I code. I'll intermittently type lyrics instead of what I was intending to do. Anyone else cursed wi…

I've found that novelty, (new-to-me at least) to be much more distracting than the presence of lyrics, whether that be a new artist or a new song order. As my unit of listening is usually an album, I'll briefly notice album transitions, and shuffle on an album will be jarring, but the 2nd or 3rd time I've heard an album it's successfully backgrounded for the duration of the album.

Re: Music for Programming

#122

Post by ottimomassimo »

k_sze wrote: post #79
silisili wrote: post #54

I've always described myself as a person with zero ability to multitask. Always have been, always will be. Every time I cook, my wife about has a panic attack watching me fumble around, forgetting things, looking for things, oh god that's burning, etc. Back on topic, I absolutely cannot listen to music with words when I code. I'll intermittently type lyrics instead of what I was intending to do. Anyone else cursed wi…

I find that music with lyrics is ok as long as it's not in a language that I understand. So for example, these languages would destroy my cencentration: - Cantonese - Mandarin - English - French I'm still ok listening to Japanese music, but I suspect it will soon be a goner because I listen to a lot of Japanese at work nowadays.

No post body was provided.

Re: Music for Programming

#123

Post by varjag »

Would also throw in a couple suggestions:

- Jean Michel Jarre, early albums like Oxygene and Equinox

- All India Radio, their Desert Tapes has been one of the best to code with IME

Re: Music for Programming

#124

Post by meigwilym »

A while ago I decided to change my usual music lists.

First of all I decided to listen to opera. I started with Mozart then went with whatever sprang to mind or Youtube's recommendation sidebar. I'm now a fan of Puccini (predicatble?) and Nixon in China is amazing.

I also decided to listen to all of Rolling Stone magazine's top 500 albums ever. After listening to each I made a short review on twitter. I managed 2-3 a day. It was impossible to "properly" listen to them, but at least I was getting through them. I paused at 60, and should really restart.

I also listen to In Our Time on Radio4, arguably the original podcasts and certainly (one of?) the best. They have been curated into collections (philosophy, history, religion) and I'm getting an education through Melvyn Bragg (also one of the best chairs in audio). Again, it's not properly listening, but I pick up much more than I get by not listening.

Re: Music for Programming

#125

Post by chanandler_bong »

ottimomassimo wrote: post #122
k_sze wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that music with lyrics is ok as long as it's not in a language that I understand. So for example, these languages would destroy my cencentration: - Cantonese - Mandarin - English - French I'm still ok listening to Japanese music, but I suspect it will soon be a goner because I listen to a lot of Japanese at work nowadays.

Quoted post unavailable.

Add 'Yakkety Sax' to the list

Re: Music for Programming

#126

Post by Uptrenda »

I go through different phases in what my brain can use for music. Sometimes I want really loud, energetic music with powerful rock lyrics. Those are usually amazing days because being able to function at a high level while taking in competing information often means I'm well rested and in a good mood. Usually though I can't listen to music with lyrics. I used to listen to a lot of classical but lately it feels like classical is just a genre of music that demands an insane amount of attention. It's like a painting that tries to use every colour. Can't really hang it without noticing the colours every time you walk by.

I feel like when I'm in the best possible state that I don't even need music though. In this state its like 'okay, I feel motivated, I know exactly what I'm going to do today. Now I begin.' I can move complex systems around like they're children's toys and the outside world speeds past without me blinking. It feels good making stuff. I definitely think that as a profession we're lucky to be software engineers. It's not physically demanding and I feel like it gives off a crap load of dopamine.

Re: Music for Programming

#127

Post by nonrandomstring »

tuxie_ wrote: post #67
silisili wrote: post #54

I've always described myself as a person with zero ability to multitask. Always have been, always will be. Every time I cook, my wife about has a panic attack watching me fumble around, forgetting things, looking for things, oh god that's burning, etc. Back on topic, I absolutely cannot listen to music with words when I code. I'll intermittently type lyrics instead of what I was intending to do. Anyone else cursed wi…

> I absolutely cannot listen to music with words when I code 1000% My first job was at a design agency, where they understood next to nothing about programming (and neither did I tbh). They used to listen to the news and talk shows on the radio all day. It was impossible for me to focus. Literally impossible. On the topic of music, as soon as my brain hears a word it hyper focuses on it like my dog when she smells a…

Did anybody else here ever work in the Tea Rooms in Shoreditch, London? Or any of those "incubators" around the A10 "Silicon Roundabout"? It was a massive warehouse and popular low rent facility filled with startups circa 2010. You could rent anything from a desk to a whole floor.

Only one problem. Constant construction noise! Hammering, drilling, sawing, cranes and trucks moving. Shoreditch was a trendy place for tech companies at the time because the whole area was under gentrification. Every coder in that building had ear-buds in and blotted-out the din with louder music. For management meetings we had to go find a basement coffee shop.

I met a guy called Julian Treasure and we did some projects on sound management in public spaces. He wrote some stuff about the impact of noise on productivity and quality. The background research looked bona fide. It will scare you.

After that I realised that every single line of code produced in the companies I was around at that time was probably broken. When I tried talking about this to other founders and managers people basically shrugged.

It may be that "work from home", where you have more control over your acoustic world, may be the best thing to ever happen to code quality.

Re: Music for Programming

#128

Post by xcambar »

silisili wrote: post #54

I've always described myself as a person with zero ability to multitask. Always have been, always will be. Every time I cook, my wife about has a panic attack watching me fumble around, forgetting things, looking for things, oh god that's burning, etc. Back on topic, I absolutely cannot listen to music with words when I code. I'll intermittently type lyrics instead of what I was intending to do. Anyone else cursed wi…

When in a crowded space (like a dinner or party), it is very hard for me to focus only on the conversation I'm currently having if I can heard (semi-)distinctly another person speaking.

This is especially painful during dinners when you can't actually move around too much because well, you're supposed to be sited.

Re: Music for Programming

#129

Post by anyfactor »

I used to keep two types of playlist for coding.

- Strugggling: Soft rock mainly

- Successing: minimalist techno. Metal.

But these days, I rarely play music. Aside from making constant typos, I found that some music changed my mood for the worst like subconciously.

Re: Music for Programming

#130

Post by alfiedotwtf »

FrankSansC wrote: post #71
alfiedotwtf wrote: post #49

I used to have MTV playing on the TV in my office when working, but I've now found clubbingtv.com which is essentially 24-7 DJs playing sets in clubs and various venues. It's just a shame they don't play more acid trance.

Did you check di.fm ? They have so many channels. There's one called "oldschool acid"[0] if that's what you're looking for. [0] https://www.di.fm/oldschoolacid

Ha :) yeah, I've been a long-time di.fm user... but what I like about clubbingtv is that it's music videos all day long.

But thanks for the reminder - I've now got new running music!

Post reply on HN