Wow, I thought was only one of the few. I use hard rock and roll, metallic music and 80's new wave music to get into The Zone. Once there, however, the throbbing music kind of becomes a blur even though, you know, its audio not visual, so its ah, background noise, gray noise?

But last night, I was in a bit of hurry, I got in there anyway without music.

How do I know I am in the zone?

Well, last night's programming problem had been there for months which I couldn't solve because I kept being disturbed (i became management, lately).

So last night, I was packing one problem after down; in four hours after 8pm, I was done. I wasn't really thinking too deeply, just feeling my way, going back one way or the other, checking the Internet for some tips, coming back again, going in a circle again, doing things repeatedly with minor changes, just feeling and intuition.

I hope some people won't think this is kind of a neurotic or psychotic thing, but I have done a lot of programming things and systems (pocketpc sync - sql replication; data sync under 20 seconds over Internet) a lot of people haven't done yet - without training or certification.

but yes, i did use some code from the Internet. and Microsoft code also, but I still had to customize and weave them in to the business requirement. at last resort I bought books also except that books kinda take one away from the zone, but good for backup once there.