Coding With Music

  • I'm into alternative rock but could not imagine trying to do anything but the easiest tasks at work if I had it in my headphones. Would be way too distracting.

    Ken

  • Lately what I find works for me is choral music. Zelenka and Bach. Because it's voices it hides other voices in the office, but It's sung in Latin so I have no clue what thier saying and don't get as badly distracted by it. I'm in an open office so I don't even have walls to block the noise. I'd prefer silence but I'd rather the music than voices.

  • All I have right now is a desk fan for white noise, but I'd like to hear music part of the time. I don't really like wearing headphones, but they make them better now, so I might have to give that a try.

    The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking

  • If I'm going for instrumental, I tend to listen to MONO (http://www.mono-jpn.com/[/url]), although their dynamic range makes them a bit difficult to listen to through headphones if you're trying to drown out background noise.

    For louder music, I've been listening to i:scintilla, Within Temptation, and Schwarz Stein.

    For calmer music, I listen to Loreena McKennitt, Indigo Girls and a few other local Atlanta singer-songwriters, Happy Rhodes, and I'm sure I've got others but I'm not finding them in my playlists right now.

    Jennifer Levy (@iffermonster)

  • I'm one of those people who need silence to focus and be productive. Fortunately, working at home gives me that advantage. In the past, when I have worked in an office environment, I have either worked in a private office (when possible), or if working in a cube environment, I use some sort of white sound to block out distractions.

    Brad M. McGehee
    DBA

  • When I am writing code, I prefer to listen to New Age, most often Kamal, Steven Halpern, Kitaro (his softer ones) or John Tesh.

    Although I love classic and progressive rock and R&B, I cannot listen to them while doing any creative work.

  • Jason Marshall (12/3/2010)


    Recently a new group moved across the aisle from us, and they're on calls all day (one with an unbelievably annoying voice), so I started bringing my MP3 player to work. When I'm writing code I usually listen to techno/trance. I used to listen to The Hold Steady at work, but found myself concentrating on the lyrics too much.

    I tend to agree. high speed mindless music operates as a good "white noise". Speed rave/trance/techno for coding. I find myself preferrring opera for code review for some reason.... Classical works for me when I'm modeling.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?

  • If there is some light music, like piano, sacksphone when I need to concentrate and the enironment around is not enough quiet.I think the light music can clean the noises, and make me quickly into deep thought.Thanks this post.

  • Is there a message in this......12½ pages of suggestions as to how to concentrate and be productive in cubicle land (or variants of it)

    We are all forced to accept such accommodation (unless we can work at home); it has been loved by bean counters for years because it allegedly reduces property costs for the employer, but how much are they paying for in terms of decreased productivity without even realising it? Meanwhile the staff suffer increased stress levels.

  • I think the message is that those that write software need to be able to concentrate without interruptions or distractions. The loss of productivity is a cost that could be reduced with a little investment in better physical surroundings, but it would also need some cultural and organizational changes. Managers need to learn how to let people work, and minimize the time that they cannot work.

  • Steve Jones - SSC Editor (12/5/2010)


    I think the message is that those that write software need to be able to concentrate without interruptions or distractions. The loss of productivity is a cost that could be reduced with a little investment in better physical surroundings, but it would also need some cultural and organizational changes. Managers need to learn how to let people work, and minimize the time that they cannot work.

    I think this could be a whole other forum discussion. "How much of your time is spent doing work other than coding and how much time do you think developers SHOULD have for dedicated development time?"

  • Steve Jones - SSC Editor (12/5/2010)


    I think the message is that those that write software need to be able to concentrate without interruptions or distractions. The loss of productivity is a cost that could be reduced with a little investment in better physical surroundings, but it would also need some cultural and organizational changes. Managers need to learn how to let people work, and minimize the time that they cannot work.

    Didn't you get the TPS report on that?

    I'm sure there could be at least 5 unporductive meetings on how "Managers can learn how to let people work."

    Oh and I work for the Gov. :hehe:

  • I think this could be a whole other forum discussion. "How much of your time is spent doing work other than coding and how much time do you think developers SHOULD have for dedicated development time?"

    Oh sure, this has been discussed at length:

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/64955/

  • Thanks, I'll check that post out.

  • I listen to my MP3 player with the music on shuffle and it's interesting what plays. Right now it's Blue Oyster Cult's Veteran of The Psychick Wars. Most of the time I couldn't tell you what is playing as I'm concentrating on my work so much that I really don't 'hear' the music.

    -SQLBill

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