Comments on: How software developers work

By: The Top 10 Things Project Morons Say | The Virtual Experts

The Top 10 Things Project Morons Say | The Virtual Experts — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:33:19 +0000

[...] For further reading: http://www.independentdeveloper.com/archive/2009/03/17/programming-is-like-a-dream http://alexthunder.livejournal.com/309815.html http://ninjamonkeys.co.za/2009/03/17/how-software-developers-work/ [...]

By: How Programmers Work | Benny Dacks

How Programmers Work | Benny Dacks — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:11:09 +0000

[...] This is why we jump out of our skin every time you tap us on the shoulder. Now, imagine you were in deep sleep, dreaming away about apples at 3am, and I came bashing into your room and said “Sorry, but we need you to dream about bananas now.” Do you think you could go straight back to sleep in a few seconds, dream about bananas for a bit, and then jump back to your original dream about apples? No, of course not, but this is what managers expect when they throw new tasks at us while we’re busy coding the first one. When this happens we’ve lost the hours we’ve spent on the first dream, we’re completely lost for half an hour, and then we eventually manage to get into the new dream. –How Software Developers Work [...]

By: How software developers work - modula

How software developers work - modula — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:38:56 +0000

[...] to understand software developers better? Here’s the one thing you need to understand above [...]

By: YourWebsiteValue

YourWebsiteValue — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:46:20 +0000

Being a programmer, I completely agree. I’ve done job in between of my jobs. But doing so cost me time. It takes at least 30 minutes to have a fuzzy picture in you head and the picture get cleaner and cleaner once you start. When you get interrupted (for another job), you lose that picture (not completely) depending how long you are away from the first job. There are many things running in a programmer’s head while working on a project.

By: Brent

Brent — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:34:40 +0000

I totally follow you. Building a mental house of cards before working on something is true. Nice insight.

By: Vaughn Dickson

Vaughn Dickson — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:46:28 +0000

It’s a stretch, but it’s worthwhile because it’s far easier to explain the effects of interruption in terms of sleep and dreaming than in terms of flow and zones.

By: brian

brian — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:32:38 +0000

I think your analog to a dream is a bit of a stretch. There are many things at play in a dream, as in the subconscience, something most people have little to no control over. However it is well documented that programmers do create constructs in their minds, however I would like to add that the best of the programmers I’ve met can switch more quickly. I personally just find a method to get into, what many athlete’s call, the zone. This drastically helps with my ability to mentally multitask.