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

Coder's High – The Intense Feeling of Absorption

slate.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 52 posts

Re: Coder's High – The Intense Feeling of Absorption

#11

Post by wicker »

icebraining wrote: post #9
therealidiot wrote: post #7

I wish I was able to just 'lock myself away' and finish a task... I just can't seem to go 5 minutes without someone disturbing me with some weird issue, or something that they could simply have searched online and had an answer instantly headphones just don't seem to be a strong enough do-not-disturb indicator

Agreed, as a go-to guy in the office, I often feel the same way. One thing I've noticed is that even if people don't actually interrupt me, the expectation that they might at any minute prevents me from fully concentrating on the task. Having some sign to indicate that for the next, say, 30m I should not be interrupted, and having people respect that, would probably help significantly. On the other hand, the fact tha…

I was having trouble with the headphones not being a clear enough signal so I took a 3'x4' black foam posterboard and made a cubicle door. It caused a stir but mostly just in the people who liked to come by and ask me if I'd opened the cat gif they'd just emailed. Having the door closed is a nice clear signal and so far it's worked fine, for exactly your reasons. I can now trust that I won't be interrupted and I can relax to focus.

Re: Coder's High – The Intense Feeling of Absorption

#12

Post by malanj »

I stopped coding for a few years, and recently started spending significant hours a week on coding again. The feeling is quite incredible. I had forgotten how good that high is.

I do think that the author doesn't understand Flow fully. The ideal state of Flow is when there is a concrete challenge with immediate feedback, which coding is great at providing. The other activities he compares coding to don't have such strong feedback or concrete challenge.

The only activity that compares with coding for me is rock climbing. While it is a physical activity, it has the same kind of concrete challenge and immediate feedback. It is totally immersive.

Re: Coder's High – The Intense Feeling of Absorption

#13

Post by thegeomaster »

jliechti1 wrote: post #4
aaron-lebo wrote: post #2

I suspect that you get this kind of high doing a lot of things other than programming; programmers are not unique in this regard. I'm insanely jealous of people who can do stuff like this. I hear stories of people like John Carmack locking themselves away in a room and finishing an entire project or implementing an entire feature in a night or over a weekend. In contrast it takes me days to finish anything, I just do…

>> but is there a way to teach yourself to be able to engage in these marathon creative sessions or is it something you must be born with? Anecdotally, I think the answer is yes. Concentration is a skill you can develop like anything else. The kind of high with programming for me is similar to that experienced when rehearsing/performing music. I used to perform on a competitive drumline and we would have 8-10 hour re…

I can confirm this. I'm (self-)learning to play drums, and since I'm still a noob, my synchronization of foot and hand is a little off. When I'm just fooling around on the kit, I don't notice these imprecisions. But once I get "in the zone" with a metronome and all, I can tell exactly every time I hit the bass drum a fraction of a second earlier/later than the hi-hat, and the feeling that follows immediately is a slightly unpleasant one, like when you commit a social faux pas. It's a curious shift of perspective, and such hypersensitivity happens to me when I get immersed in code too, so I guess it relates to concentration itself.

Re: Coder's High – The Intense Feeling of Absorption

#14

Post by Cthulhu_ »

bluedino wrote: post #5
aaron-lebo wrote: post #2

I suspect that you get this kind of high doing a lot of things other than programming; programmers are not unique in this regard. I'm insanely jealous of people who can do stuff like this. I hear stories of people like John Carmack locking themselves away in a room and finishing an entire project or implementing an entire feature in a night or over a weekend. In contrast it takes me days to finish anything, I just do…

Carmack would actually pack a powerful laptop and go stay in a hotel (in a town where he didn't know anyone) for a week at times, it was the only way he could get away from it all.

Actually this may be an important factor as to why a lot of people don't experience flow as much as described in the article or by people like Carmack; they have day jobs, family life, 9-5 jobs, that kinda thing. Those things will pull you out of the zone; lunch breaks, stopping for dinner, other people distracting you, etc.

I think Carmack (and people like him) grew up in the proverbial basement, where they could spend hours and hours on end with their hobbies without any social obligations; this is where they developed that concentration, and that state of mind and environment is where they return to if they need to work on a big or complicated task.

Re: Coder's High – The Intense Feeling of Absorption

#15

Post by modarts »

wicker wrote: post #11
icebraining wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, as a go-to guy in the office, I often feel the same way. One thing I've noticed is that even if people don't actually interrupt me, the expectation that they might at any minute prevents me from fully concentrating on the task. Having some sign to indicate that for the next, say, 30m I should not be interrupted, and having people respect that, would probably help significantly. On the other hand, the fact tha…

I was having trouble with the headphones not being a clear enough signal so I took a 3'x4' black foam posterboard and made a cubicle door. It caused a stir but mostly just in the people who liked to come by and ask me if I'd opened the cat gif they'd just emailed. Having the door closed is a nice clear signal and so far it's worked fine, for exactly your reasons. I can now trust that I won't be interrupted and I can…

It seems like the problems expressed by you and the parent comments really come down to the unsuitability of open plan offices for development work that seem to have become popular in many startup environments. Giving people access to offices with doors that close would elimanate an entire class of issues (and admittedly introduce some more, but I couldn't see anything being more destructive than continuous streams of interruptions)

Re: Coder's High – The Intense Feeling of Absorption

#16

Post by bicx »

I've noticed that this really doesn't happen to me unless I've got some outside motivation to make coding my number-one priority. Otherwise, my brain always kicks in with a nagging feeling that I need to better moderate how to spend my time. Or I just get bored. Basically, I need a reason to focus. It takes me a good few hours before the "flow" really kicks in, which is beyond the point when I normally take a break to clear my head.

(Also, am I the only one who gets slightly annoyed with the word "coding"? It seems to ignore the fact that most problems we sit around solving revolve around systems, integration, framework intricacies, logistical/timing issues, and stuff like that. The code is just the instruction set. Then again, maybe I just want my job to sound more fancy and shit.)

Re: Coder's High – The Intense Feeling of Absorption

#18

Post by lilsunnybee »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #2

I suspect that you get this kind of high doing a lot of things other than programming; programmers are not unique in this regard. I'm insanely jealous of people who can do stuff like this. I hear stories of people like John Carmack locking themselves away in a room and finishing an entire project or implementing an entire feature in a night or over a weekend. In contrast it takes me days to finish anything, I just do…

I've never been able to get into such a state either, with coding or any other such activity. For me the main impediment is almost definitely health-related (narcolepsy), but i wouldn't be surprised if there are quite a few other genetic configurations and circumstances without noticeable health consequences that make such intense levels of concentration next to impossible.

Re: Coder's High – The Intense Feeling of Absorption

#19

Post by henrik_w »

I can really relate to this. There are many aspects of programming that contribute, I think: you are creating something, ususally something useful to others, which you are (often) in complete control of, and (in the words of Fred Brooks):

"The delight of working in such a tractable medium. The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of imagination."

I love that quote! More here: http://henrikwarne.com/2012/06/02/why-i-love-coding/

Post reply on HN