Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)?

#21

Post by bichiliad » Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 8:52 AM UTC

If it's complex / thought intensive, brown noise on http://www.noisli.com/

If it's something I can just crank out, and I've thought about the overall design, I keep a list of soundcloud favorites (https://soundcloud.com/basik/likes and http://thudsandrumbles.com/). I always look for new things, though. Today, I listened to Christopher O'Riley cover Radiohead.

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)?

#22

Post by sytelus » Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 9:01 AM UTC

It takes time to "train" Pandora but I've been at it for 3-4 years now seeding with all the tracks that are great for coding and thumbing up when I hear something that promotes going in to zen mode. The results are great and now this is my favorite music source in everything else I've tried out: http://www.pandora.com/station/play/164715539305919382. The status features mostly vocal-free distraction less music with rhythmic beats that puts you in the zone and occasional uplifting tracks that keeps you going.

I've also found this music station to be very anti-procrastinating. If you feel like procrastating, just press the play button and suddenly you would want to get back to coding :).

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)?

#23

Post by a3n » Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 2:01 PM UTC

I'm a big fan of quiet. I find that music determines my mental rhythm, and what I'm thinking about or constructing doesn't have a regular rhythm. For me personally, music interferes with thinking about something specific, so I only listen to music when what I'm doing is Listening To Music, or if I'm OK with letting my thinking wander.

I realize I'm unusual in this.

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)?

#24

Post by allanmacgregor » Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 2:17 PM UTC

http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Programming001/95161345

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)?

#25

Post by Oculus » Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 2:34 PM UTC

I'm actually a huge fan of Tycho. I like the music I listen to to be good when I pay attention, but not overwhelming while coding.

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)?

#26

Post by davidddavidson » Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 3:50 PM UTC

Downtempo - http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Programming+Music/60387099

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)?

#27

Post by kafkaesque » Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 4:25 PM UTC

Nobody has a Spotify playlist for this?

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)?

#28

Post by mppatterson » Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 4:56 PM UTC

Surprised no one has mentioned Focus at Will (https://www.focusatwill.com/). I've had huge productivity boosts while listening, whether it's programming or writing emails. The free version is nice, but the paid version is really worthwhile since you get a much wider variety of music (it adds an "intensity" option to each genre).

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)?

#29

Post by dankoss » Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 5:16 PM UTC

I listen to a variety of stuff on Spotify now but when I listened to EDM more exclusively I would hit the di.fm online radio stations.

Re: Ask HN: What do you listen to while coding (and how)?

#30

Post by kumarishan » Sat, Jun 21, 2014, 7:54 PM UTC

I dont really listen to music. But sometimes I like to run an action packed movie in the background. The movie shouldn't be new to me, preferably in other language too. Maybe I like it because of adrenalin rush. :).

Even those rainy moods are better than music.

Music distracts with an urge to sing with it. And with instrumentals I get bored soon.