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"Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.

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Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.

#41

Post by Nate75Sanders »

DevX101 wrote: post #7

I 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'd upvote this 10 times if I could. In some cases, I have to even drop music that has interesting beats, because I start trying to find patterns, listening intently to the beats, etc.

What I've found to deal with this is 2 of SomaFM's channels: Drone Zone and Space Station Soma

Turn those up on some noise-cancelling headphones and lock out everything else. Good times.

EDIT: formatting

Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.

#43

Post by steveklabnik »

krakensden wrote: post #42
steveklabnik wrote: post #3

Personally, my friends and I have started listing to Dubstep. Just few enough vocals to be distracting, but still interesting.

Personal collections or something like glitch.fm?

Either by typing "dubstep" into Pandora, or http://dubstep.fm/

I'll check out glitch, though, thanks!

Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.

#44

Post by yesno »

Music or not I'm guessing the problem that most people (programmers, in this case) have is the inability to focus/concentrate for a certain period of time and what they do is to find something to cling on.

What if maybe the way we work as a developer can be improved? What if we should think outside the box and be a problem solver not just in coding, but also in real-life?

How about breaking a big task into smaller chunks of 5 minutes tasks? I've seen plenty software developers who just put their head down and start coding immediately without some planning. I've seen developers to take on complex problems with no plan or strategy.

What if the problem can be solved within 5 minutes, the developer should grab a few other developers and start brainstorming? Make a decision tree. List options.

I mean... it's not that all of us need to solve Google type of problems. Even a Math exam question can be done (and should be done) within 5-15 minutes.

Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.

#45

Post by notyourwork »

JangoSteve wrote: post #27

I'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…

Was going to say the same myself but saw you said it first. Hard Rock/Rap is my usual choice for coding sessions.

Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.

#47

Post by puredemo »

randallsquared wrote: post #23
InclinedPlane wrote: post #17

Earlier 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 used to be an individual office partisan, but after working for a coupla years in cubes with walls that come to a sitting person's neck, I find that there are a lot of benefits: I can just turn (and scoot across my cube, if necessary) to ask or answer questions of a co-worker; I can hear when people begin chattering, which is a sign that something is going on that I need to pay attention to, like the site being dow…

Those benefits are not worthwhile to me personally. I want to code, not constantly overhear office chatter.

Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.

#48

Post by puredemo »

eftpotrm wrote: post #40
InclinedPlane wrote: post #17

Earlier 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…

It's even worse if, like me, you're diagnosed with adult ADD. Something that would take me 5-20 minutes in a quiet environment can easily take me a half day in a distraction-prone open office environment.

Re: "Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.

#49

Post by tempest67 »

I wonder if being able to code while listening to music has anything to do with gender; I am a female developer, and can't listen to any kind of music at all while programming -- I find it as distracting as if a cat were jumping on the keyboard. Perhaps because female brains tend to have more connections across the halves? (...or perhaps because I'm a musician myself, and process music differently?)
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