programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
Occasionally people will ask me what kind of music I like to code by. I'm not sure I am the right person to ask this question of.
Allow me to explain by citing my 2001 Amazon review of a particular album.
It all started so innocently. I purchased this CD on a lark in mid 1998.
Subsequently, I put on this CD at high volume to torture my then-coworkers. It became a running joke. We'd take any opportunity, any pretext at all, to put it on. It had to be played at least once every day for "good luck." We'd force each other to listen to it. We'd have little contests to see who was man enough to listen to it over and over and still silently sit there programming away, not complaining. Sometimes we'd sing along to enhance the effect.
In short: we broke people. It was like a Vietnamese prison camp in stereo.
It was a joke. But then a very strange thing happened -- as I listened to the CD over and over, I began to like it. I mean really like it! I began to listen to it at home on my own time. "There's something about this music", I thought, as I listened to it for the 543rd time. "Maybe it's so bad, it has actually wrapped all the way around and it's.. good again?". I played the album for my wife. At that point I was hooked. I knew all the words to "Having my Baby", and.. I liked it!
For completeness, here's the track list. If you have any kind of musical taste, you may want to look away from the screen momentarily.
(An anonymous commenter was kind enough to create a Mixwit "mix tape" web page of the above songs, if you're feeling masochistic and want to hear them yourself. Or sadistic, I guess, if you manage to broadcast this music to your coworkers somehow. Not that I would officially endorse said action in any possible way, of course!)
In a peculiar twist of fate, one of my then coworkers, Geoff, now works with me on Stack Overflow. He can confirm that what I said above actually happened, although I'm not sure you could make something like that up. Apparently his mind wasn't totally destroyed by exposure to this "music". As far as we know.
While I've mentioned mild forms of coworker griefing -- er, I mean, teambuilding -- before in Don't Forget to Lock Your Computer, I thought this audio form was unique.
What I didn't know then is that this sort of musical griefing had a precedent. It's documented in the 1994 book Show Stopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft. I didn't get around to reading this excellent book until 2004, but it's right there in black and white:
[David] Cutler camped in the Build Lab now, scrutinizing the check-ins, so [Kyle] Shannon wanted him to be comfortable. After further musical experiments, he finally hit on a sound that pleased Cutler. It was a raucous album by the rock group Journey. One morning Shannon slapped on Journey, and heavy metal sounds filled the lab. Cutler started bobbing his head, humming to the cacophony. Shannon smiled. Nodding gratefully, Cutler promised to share with the builders a couple of his own favorite albums.He didn't have any favorite albums, but he saw a chance to relieve tension. That night he asked his companion, Deborah Girdler, to visit a CD store and buy something "really bad." She returned with two discs: Jim Nabors (star of the 1960s TV series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.) singing gospel tunes and the fantasy characters Alvin and the Chipmunks singing children's songs. Perfect, Cutler thought.
The next day Cutler treated his builders to Nabors singing "In the Sweet Bye and Bye," "Onward Christian Soldiders" and other hymns. When Cutler sang along, everyone cringed; it was hard to tell which was more loathesome -- Nabors gone gospel or Cutler gone musical. No one cheered when Cutler asked to hear the Nabors disc over and over again, day after day.
Before long Shannon and the builders regretted ever awakening Cutler's musicality. They finally hid the Nabors disc on the floor under a desk. When Cutler asked for it, Shannon invariably said "It's in my car." Cutler, who caught the lie, laughed and laughed.
So the next time you ask one of your fellow programmers to put on some background coding music for the team, think twice. That's all I'm saying.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to slip on my headphones and get back to coding while listening to one of my favorite albums, The Transformed Man.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me ...
It was a raucous album by the rock group Journey. One morning Shannon slapped on Journey, and heavy metal sounds filled the lab.
Clearly this book was written by a Country-Western fan (What kind of music do you usually have here? Oh, we have both kinds. Country. AND Western.). I'm not sure there are many people who would describe Journey as 'heavy metal.'
(T.E.D. wrote:
Its all a matter of perspective. Back in the late 70's they were considered that (what can I say, it was a horrid, horrid time for music). If you look at the soundtrack to Heavy Metal, you'll see Journey on it.
Today? No.
Of course, this book was written in 1994 about events in the 90's... so the author really had no excuse.)
For myself, I usually find that a classical piece with a grand, majestic finale works best. Nothing quite like the final movements of Mahler's symphony #1 or Beethoven's Ninth to really focus my mind.
Steve on August 11, 2008 11:06 AMI had a co-worked I shared a cubicle with few years back. He was always using speaker phone even when he didn't have anything to say. He would be on a speaker call for a couple hours a day and I would just have to sit there and listen. I started grumbling about it and we had a few discussions but he didn't stop doing it. So one day I put Cindy Lauper - Girls just want to have fun on repeat, turned my laptop volume up, locked my computer and walked away. The asshole finally picked up the headset.
I know this is about peoples personal preference for music, but I am surprised nobody has mentioned http://pandora.com/. I listen to it virtually everyday. You wanna listen to 70s rock or hip hop or indie or whatever it will get it for you and start guessing what you want to hear next. I've been using it over a year.
Chris King on August 11, 2008 11:06 AMI had a co-worked I shared a cubicle with few years back. He was always using speaker phone even when he didn't have anything to say. He would be on a speaker call for a couple hours a day and I would just have to sit there and listen. I started grumbling about it and we had a few discussions but he didn't stop doing it. So one day I put Cindy Lauper - Girls just want to have fun on repeat, turned my laptop volume up, locked my computer and walked away. The asshole finally picked up the headset.
I know this is about peoples personal preference for music, but I am surprised nobody has mentioned pandora.com. I listen to it virtually everyday. You wanna listen to 70s rock or hip hop or indie or whatever it will get it for you and start guessing what you want to hear next. I've been using it over a year.
Chris King on August 11, 2008 11:06 AMWhat?! No love for the greatest of the great, Dr. Demento? http://www.drdemento.com/
I have his 20th anniversary 2 disc set (and even that is pretty old) and that'll get you going for hours...
Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads...
That and I'm also in the trace/ambient camp. Soma's Drone Zone is oddly mind clearing at times for programming.
Sean Patterson on August 11, 2008 11:07 AMBTW Jeff... since you are Shatner fan... get the 2004 'Has been'. His rendition of Common People is in fact awesome.
Way ahead of you! Fantastic album, a colloaboration with Ben Folds:
http://www.amazon.com/Has-Been-William-Shatner/dp/B0002RUPH4
Jeff Atwood on August 11, 2008 11:41 AMPink Floyd for me.
TG on August 11, 2008 11:43 AM Clearly this book was written by a Country-Western fan (What kind
of music do you usually have here? Oh, we have both kinds.
Country. AND Western.).
*ding* You win being first with the Blues Brothers quote. That's exactly what entered my mind when I read the later post that said I listen to all varieties of metal when I code.
Of course, this book was written in 1994 about events in the 90's... so the author really had no excuse.)
I suppose you could look at it that way. What I was trying to get at is that I think its still OK to call them metal today, as long as you are talking about that old work. Just because the genre' has evolved doesn't mean we have to go back and reclassify all the old practicioners as something else.
If he was talking about their work in the 90's, well, I'm impressed. I didn't think anyone bought that stuff. :-)
T.E.D. on August 11, 2008 11:50 AMI started listening to this mixed tape and wow, something just snapped releasing some very suppressed memories. I thought I was ok all of these years, but clearly from my uncontrollable weeping while fetal position on the floor demonstrates otherwise!
Billy, don't be a HERO, come back to meeeeeeeee. BWWWAAAAA!!!! :)
Geoff Dalgas on August 11, 2008 11:55 AMJeff, you really need a transparent PNG version of the logo.
Mauro on August 11, 2008 12:04 PMI suspect you guys might find the wikipedia entry for Journey a bit more accurate. They classified them as initially Jazz Fusion, then loosely compared them to Boston and Foreigner (roughly how I remember them), then Pop, then Adult Contemporary. Heavy Metal is never used once.
*Amazing* amount of churn in that band too. I count 20 different members at one time or other. At some point you quit being a band and start being a corporation. :-)
T.E.D. on August 11, 2008 12:10 PMCleanup, Testing, Documentation, Scripts:
Bat Out of Hell/Meatloaf
Please Hammer Don't Hurt'Em/MC Hammer
Design, Algorithms, Intensive Coding:
Accelerated Learning
Anything else:
Active noise cancellation headsets.
One person's music, is another person's nightmare. I can't imagine someone not using a headset in a group environment. Private offices are great, but cubicles next to the sink and coffee pot, not so much.
*Familiar* music helps me concentrate. Something new is distracting, but if I'm running over well-worn tracks in my brain then that helps. Especially if the alternative is the low murmur of an office environment.
I've been tested as having a bi-lateral brain - neither side dominant - so I think the music helps the parts of my brain I'm not using when programming. Then those parts don't distract me from coding - they get to listen to music!
For me, coding is an act of violence. I feel like I'm ripping things apart and putting them back together in ways nature never intended. Tool, NIN, and the like are my favs. I don't need a shrink - I can always write code if I have some negative feelings to work out. :)
Matt Lentzner on August 11, 2008 12:36 PMTie A Yellow Ribbon is actually not that bad. I'm imagining myself walking down a road on a sunny day. That would be a nice and happy background music.
N on August 11, 2008 12:52 PM'Background coding music for the team'???
Maybe I'm just a music-nazi, but that sounds like a total recipe for disaster.
There couldn't possibly be a quicker way to create dischord (no pun intended) amongst work mates.
The chances of 'You got some of your Tito Puente in my Slayer. No, you got some of your Slayer on my Tito Puente. Hey! This actually sounds good' are close to zero.
Like I said though, I'm a music-nazi.
Clearly another case of Stockholm syndrome
Sneal on August 11, 2008 1:07 PMI find the only music to code by is music I already know. Anything new is too distractng, and removes my mind from the problem at hand. Loud rock when the going is good, something gentle when things are tricky.
And Feelings is a wonderful piece of music :-)
Mr Latt on August 11, 2008 1:08 PMAt my previous position, we had music playing all day long. It alternated between country and america's top pop hits. I could deal with pop music, but it made for a tough day when country was on. One day they accidentally put it at the wrong station and Offspring came on, which I was pretty happy about. Half way through the song though, it got changed to country.
It's nice now where i'm at, no music at all. If I need to concentrage, I ussually have nothing going. Otherwise I have my headphones on with either assorted music (largely from the 80's and 90's, mostly rock) or sports talk radio (which I am addicted too).
Kris on August 11, 2008 1:11 PMWow--I knew all but one of those! (I'm not sure what that means, other than I'm old...)
El on August 11, 2008 1:15 PMNothing or muzak. Something passive to everyone.
J on August 11, 2008 1:17 PMI prefer the head phones, bad-taste/humour music doesn't work for me... Preferably coding music should be without lyrics, or at least in a language I don't understand (or in English but mixed low, mumbled and otherwise hard to notice), otherwise it distracts me too much. Lyrics in norwegian, my mothertounge, doesn't work at all because I can't just NOT hear what they say.
BTW what timezone are you posting from? This post appeared less than half an hour ago, ca 08:30 UTC+1 August 11. Is there really a timezone UTC-32 ???
Qvasi on August 11, 2008 1:22 PManon, this is awesome! Thank you! Rockin' it now..
http://www.mixwit.com/widgets/e65bc88e4706d1652b3c845336fc4acc
I wasn't kidding when I said I started to like this music.
In other news, I am a sick, sick man. Send help.
Jeff Atwood on August 11, 2008 1:24 PMomg.. why did they have to butcher such an amazing song.. SHHHAAATTTNNEERRRRRRR1!~!1~!!!
abel on August 11, 2008 1:25 PMoh and Jeff, if you're a sick, sick man.. send the doctor my way. this stuff isn't all that bad. i actually kind of feel a desire to sing along to tie a yellow ribbon hmmmm..
gonna need a double enema please after this LOL.
abel on August 11, 2008 1:27 PMHeavy metal. Streaming. Free. Without commercials.
N on August 11, 2008 1:30 PMWe have a fairly small office with all the people in the same open space. There's a certain radio station that's on all day long around the year at our office, and they have a huge amount of variation in what the play, often leaning away from mainstream stuff. If there's ever a song someone really doesn't like, we just put up because that's a very rare occasion and we know it'll be over after that song anyway. (As a side note, I've also found many new artists that I like, that I would not have run into through my usual channels, or that I would've rejected based on a short initial impression.)
If we didn't have the radio on I suspect the silence would become far too awkward and everyone would start using headphones, and then communication would be obstructed since when someone's listening on headphones it's a lot more intimate and interrupting them feels like you're invading their privacy.
anttirt on August 11, 2008 1:36 PMAt one time, when I started a new job, I was asked what my favorite music was. Frank Zappa, of course, and the response was: This can be fun. I never dared to put Zappa on at a decent volume, mostly because I prefer to work in silence.
Maarten
Maarten Sneep on August 11, 2008 1:38 PMTorturing people with horrendous music (subjective) would earn you a buildmeister job in most places and your health insurance premium would go up.
I'd love to bring my ping pong table for a quick ping pong thing between the builds but alas.
Music is nice, but if you can code, you can code, music or not?
Isn't code the music we play? Or is code just a friggin paycheck to you?
BugFree on August 11, 2008 1:46 PMThat picture of a BASF C60 tape is photoshopped, badly.
BS levies on this blog has been washed away long time ago.
BugFree on August 11, 2008 1:48 PMI agree with Qvasi and Mr. Latt on this one. Most of the time, listening to music is just too distracting for any serious programming, but it depends on the type of music and the type of work I am doing. If I am just hammering out simple code that has been planned well (i.e. designed), then some of my favorite music will often help me flow, but when working on something that requires full concentration, music is often distracting. To me, lyrics is an important part of music, so if I hear a song with unknown lyrics, my brain will automatically allocate resources to decoding the words and phrases, stealing attention from the current task.
I find that music can be a very useful for increasing productivity and general well-being while working, but only when I decide to listen to it myself. Random music playing in the office can be seriously annoying, especially if it's not your kind of music or you are not in the mood for that kind at the time.
Also, using headphones (with music) to help you concentrate (by blocking out other sounds) can be a sign that your work environment is actually too noisy in the first place.
Anders Sandvig on August 11, 2008 1:56 PMSince I discovered www.xtcradio.com about 2 years ago, I listen to it almost every afternoon, with my headphones. It can really bring me into a kind of 'total focus' zone, where excellent code flows out freely. Warning: addictive. : )
You know that l33t music that plays when you fire up a keygen? There's an entire website devoted to it: a href=http://www.keygenmusic.net/?lang=enKeygen music!/a Try blasting that in the office. Not that I would know what keygens really sound like...
Kyle Estes on August 11, 2008 1:57 PMThe last gig I had where we were there were no non-code-monkeys in the building, we had one CD player that fed speakers in every room; anyone was free to play anything they wanted. This had its ups and its downs, as Rammstein was invariably answered by Phish, but it also led to some surprising crowd favorites, including both O Brother Where Art Thou soundtracks...
Nowadays, being a lone coder surrounded by speakerphones, conference rooms, the door to the outside used regularly by the smokers (and the beeps it emits whenever anyone comes back in), etc, I find the potential distraction of the music to be much less of a productivity-sink than the very real human distractions that I'm surrounded by.
Like others have mentioned, though, I can't have a new album playing while I'm trying to code, but stuff I know well helps.
Currently on the iPod, in shuffle mode:
Dead Can Dance: Best Of 1981-1998
Rush: 2112, Roll the Bones, Caress of Steel
Metallica: Justice
The Nightwatchman (Tom Morello): One Man Revolution
No Doubt: Tragic Kingdom
Ozzy: Live at Budokan
Paul Simon: Rhythm of the Saints
White Zombie: La Sexorcisto
White Stripes: Walking With a Ghost
Loretta Lynn: Van Lear Rose
Crystal Method: Legion of Boom, Tweekend
Chemical Brothers: Surrender
plus a carp-load more, but you get the idea.
Yoda on August 12, 2008 5:45 AMFor this reason, you may not be able to code hard if you are
listening music, because it occupies the same area in your brain.
Or, since it's stimulating the part of the brain you need to use anyway, it will increase your ability to write code. It really depends on the person. Some people need a higher level of stimulation to maintain the breakneck pace that so many of us seem doomed to work.
For that reason, many programmers listen too noisy music like metal
or hard rock. It is difficult to concentrate all notes of this kind
of music, so you don't focus on music. It is just better for
isolating programmer from outside world.
You'd be surprised. As a musician, I've spent a great deal of my life picking out the notes in Metallica, Testament, Napalm Death, and Carcass songs. I not only hear every note, I hear the lines split between the instruments. This is especially prevalent because my first instrument was the bass guitar, which is generally buried in the mix (especially on a band's first couple of albums, before they have good engineers, or when their bassist is willing to be buried).
If I want something that sounds more like a sonic wall of noise I tend towards industrial music. When a significant amount of the music is electronically generated noise and samples, there's not much to distinguish.
When I'm programming, the music's just there to keep out the constant variations in the surrounding environment. There's no need to hear the beeps when people key into the building, the noises people make as they come and go from their offices, and the sounds the air conditioner makes as it kicks on and off throughout the day.
Vizeroth on August 12, 2008 6:26 AMits me or the logo on the tape started looking like a PHB?
Daniel NeoStrider Monteiro on August 12, 2008 7:16 AMWait, you mean there's something wrong with Alvin and the Chipmunks?
AndyL on August 12, 2008 8:11 AMI recommend The Animator's Survival Kit (http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Richard-Williams/dp/0571202284/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1218550186sr=8-1)
. Since I read it, I haven't listened to music while working.
Oh dear Brian others... ambient music for coding? This would explain some of the wishy-washy code out there
The Pixel Gnome on August 12, 2008 8:13 AMTwo words....... Roger Miller
CroW on August 12, 2008 8:42 AMThis is truly wonderful. Thank you! :D
... Feeeeeeeelings.....
Ivan on August 12, 2008 8:43 AMThat would drive me batty. I can't code with any sounds at all... anyone who distracts easily like me would go nuts, or not get anything done... or both.
Steve-O on August 12, 2008 9:53 AMIt takes too long to find value-added content.
So, a couple of suggestions instead of just complaining:
- Dvorak gives some advice on the topic: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2327852,00.asp
- maybe you/Jeff could add a Featured Comments section like http://thedailywtf.com/ has.
can't believe i went and listened to that mixtape... you said it was bad but i thought maybe it was good.. NOOOOO!! ARGH
Miles Thompson on August 12, 2008 11:03 AMTrance through noise blocking earbuds. Let them listen to all of the Neil Diamond they want...I am in my own world.
M@ on August 12, 2008 12:07 PMJohn Coltrane is music - I don't what the rest of you are talking about.
Terrier on August 12, 2008 1:12 PMI usually just have my whole collection on shuffle, although I tend to go on sprees of next-mashing when I can't be satisfied...
When I really want to concentrate, I prefer Joe Satriani (flowing guitar without lyrics).
Ambient stuff just makes my brain work harder trying to recognize patterns that aren't there, so it distracts me quite a bit...
Daniel on August 12, 2008 1:15 PMI have read that brain of a programmer works like an artist. Same zone on the brain works while programming or painting / sculpturing.
And this part is also activated while listening music.
For this reason, you may not be able to code hard if you are listening music, because it occupies the same area in your brain.
For that reason, many programmers listen too noisy music like metal or hard rock. It is difficult to concentrate all notes of this kind of music, so you don't focus on music. It is just better for isolating programmer from outside world.
My fovourite music is the silence after midnight, only noise of cooling fan, and ticks of keyboard.
For day time, I prefer Evanescence and other female fronted metal bands.
While resting, I like to listen Kitaro, however I can't focus on programming while listening Kitaro because I can't stop focusing on music.
Moosty on August 12, 2008 1:26 PMHow many times does it usually take to not bleed from the ears anymore?
Koesper on August 13, 2008 3:04 AMAvalaaaaaaaaaaaaancha!!!
(Really inspires me)
Gil on August 13, 2008 3:51 AMi've listened to 2 track till now, what's wrong with it? :D
well, me my self prefer to bang my head with some hardcore heavy metal
salyer is a good choice always
any metal heads here? \m/
Generally I agree with those folks who say its better to go soundless. However, that's not an option when you work in a huge cubicle farm.
I generally try to listen to NPR, as its a good way to at least keep informed. But when I switch to music, oddly I've found that its the most mellow stuff I have that seems to work best for me. Within that, the worst stuff seems to work better for me that the good stuff. If its music that truly rocks, I find myself wanting to stop and listen.
So my music to code by ends up being (whole albums, in order):
Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months, and 2 Days in the Life.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasure Dome
The Art of Noise - In Visible Silence
Miami Vice (Music from the Television Show)
(after that, I'm stuck with good mellow stuff)
Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station
Jethro Tull - Warchild
Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow (a bit short, sadly)
Too Funny... had a little lolocopter when I started the tape.
I did the same thing 18 years ago with Metallica. All of my co-workers listened to country full blast and I was getting sick of it. I bought AJFA from a pawn shop as a joke and blasted away.
About the third or fourth playthrough just about everyone had fallen in love with the CD. Wish Steve Vai and Rush had resonated as well.
Dang, I hate you! I'm actually getting ready to download most of these tunes.
grrrr.
I don't care what people say... without a constant stream through my Bose buds i wouldn't get jack done in our office. The music is only occasionally registering in the foreground. It's kinda like my 5-speed Legend, people tell me how happy I'd be if I got an automatic... but I'm not unhappy. I don't even realize I'm shifting.
There are some tracks that are voodoo to productivity though (unless it's time for a brain break)
Natalie Grant - Held
Yellow - Oh Yeah
War - Low Rider
Steve Vai - Deep down into the pain
.. and I'm guessing anything Shatner
My tastes vary so I have a couple streaming music sites I keep on hand, as mentioned many times before, without vocals.
Classical - KXPR Capital Radio - http://www.capradio.org/programs/classicalmusic/default.aspx
Trance/dance - Trance Lab with Lord Bass - http://www.trancelab.com
Various (Rock, big band) - Pandora = http://www.pandora.com (for example: http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh26717058879895890)
Eric on August 13, 2008 10:36 AMI used play yodeling music while coding. Oh, what fun :) or torture
noArt on August 13, 2008 11:00 AMUm, the best programming music is the Quake II Soundtrack (1997) mostly by Sonic Mayhem
AbsZero on August 13, 2008 12:16 PMJeff, I happen to know for a fact that you have the largest collection of 70s pop tunes imaginable!
You don't know this, but 70s pop songs are the crux of my super hero powers. If I am humming a pop tune from the 70s, I can make incredibly poor decisions about how to abuse my body (caffeine, nicotine, etc.). It is not a top tier super power like invulnerability or flight, but you have to take what you can get.
ABBA FOREVER!
Tim Elhajj on August 13, 2008 12:28 PMnothing like the beegees for beating that 3 o clock slump :)
Reader 101 on August 14, 2008 3:17 AMI'm just testing the vebvisum http://www.webvisum.com/ captcha solver, and it appears your famous 'captcha' still is robot proof!!
;)
Using Solve captcha on the page resulted in the captcha answer '109K readers' and using OCR on the image itself yielded no result.
Where's you gone? Haven't seen a new post in 5 days.
Everything OK?
Nishant Sharma on August 14, 2008 5:56 AMI am surprised that no one yet mentioned the classic Badger Badger Badger song:
http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/
There is no way that I can sleep while listing to it. To me the song in like mental caffeine -- a little bit goes a long way.
Ahhhhh! Having My Baby might be one of the most painful yet enjoyable songs of all time.
Jeff on August 14, 2008 12:44 PMWow - I've been coding to that mix tape all morning. Tie a Yellow Ribbon and Torn Between Two Lovers are great!
Personally, I like to code to the Backstreet Boys, A-Teens, and ABBA (no - really. Ask anyone who knows me ;-) with a splash of Puccini. In fact, my current playlist has *5* different versions of Dancing Queen! Woot!
Allow me to explain by citing my 2007 YouTube review of a particular single.
Fixed; the quote applies to me and countless others for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
The best coding music?
On Land, the seminal Ambient Music album by Brian Eno, circa 1973.
There...now that I've told you, I have to code, I mean kill, you.
Get to work, you lazy sods.
Tomato Queen on August 18, 2008 2:28 AMHey nobody mentioned AC/DC and Deep Purple.
These two together with
Bryan Adams, Placebo, Pink Floyd, CCR, Eagles, David Bowie, Van Halen, Nick Cave
make up my main dish. All this spiced with some classic music such as Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Vivaldi.
Nick B. on August 18, 2008 3:04 AMWas all this really necessary?
:)
Practicality on August 18, 2008 8:02 AMWe used to listen to Kompressor while working ... it's a heavy german-accent industrial sound krush-fear combo ... not everyone liked it, mind you. :)
Yes, and it also started as a joke and after a while i really began to like this music - i listened to it A LOT!
Video:
a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQis9xkYkg0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQis9xkYkg0/a">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQis9xkYkg0/a">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQis9xkYkg0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQis9xkYkg0/a
Music Download:
a href=http://www.dizzler.com/music/Kompressor/K_Mighty_Remixhttp://www.dizzler.com/music/Kompressor/K_Mighty_Remix/a">http://www.dizzler.com/music/Kompressor/K_Mighty_Remix/a">http://www.dizzler.com/music/Kompressor/K_Mighty_Remixhttp://www.dizzler.com/music/Kompressor/K_Mighty_Remix/a
Working links (hopefully):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQis9xkYkg0
www.dizzler.com/music/Kompressor/K_Mighty_Remix
steffenj on August 19, 2008 3:23 AMlate I know, but when I worked in a Warehouse we called it the Radio 1 effect.
Geoff on August 19, 2008 7:13 AMI used to torture my ex-teammates with all the discography of Insane Clown Posse for about 6 months. I used to play it in the exact same order until the point everybody knew which song followed each one. They always show me how much they hated it, they even used to throw anything they could put their hands on (CD cases, pens, balls of paper, even an old keyboard). As the time went by it became like a ritual we followed religiously. After the 6 months passed I was reassigned to manage a different project and I was relocated two stories away from there.
About 3 months latter I went to visit my former team. For my surprise they were still playing the exact same play list I used to play with the difference that this time they played in ever single computer and you could see a giant poster of Violent J (lead singer) sticked on to the central window. It was like a cult... very creepy. They now used to throw things to each other randomly.
Chepech on August 21, 2008 7:55 AMTapes are obsolete already, hehe
doc holliday on August 28, 2008 2:53 AMIt's kinda helpful. not bad at all.
music business on September 9, 2008 2:18 AMI think richard cheese is excellent to code by. his lounge classics are rockin
cohnsey on September 9, 2008 4:27 AMTwo words: EAR PLUGS!!!!!
1389 on September 12, 2008 10:13 AMI find music a distraction for me when coding. Why? Because I start listening to the music instead of focusing on the code. But if I were to code to music it would be to my own.
Coder Blues on September 23, 2008 8:19 AMI'm new to PHP and recently setup my local machine with PHP and MySQL for doing development. I was sort of stuck when I needed to post my work for the user to test and review. After looking around a bit I found a site that hosts PHP and MySQL apps. I was surprised that it was free - it seems they're offering the service at no cost until 2012. At that point they'll change over to a fee-based service. However, in the meantime, it's a great place to do anything from demo and sandbox right up to posting sites for real.
Their pitch is as follows:
This is absolutely free, there is no catch. You get 350 MB of disk space and 100 GB bandwidth. They also have cPanel control panel which is amazing and easy to use website builder. Moreover, there is not any kind of advertising on your pages.
Check it out using this link:
http://www.000webhost.com/83188.html
Important: There's one catch in that you must make sure you visit the account every 14 days - otherwise the account is marked 'Inactive' and the files are deleted!!!
Thanks and good luck!
god you're a nerd - not a badge of pride but rather a clueless turd. why bother letting people know any of this? nobody cares.
d_b on December 3, 2008 12:25 PMI know all of the songs you posted and queued each one in my head as I was reading the track listing. The saddest part is that I can sing any one of those on command.
For working I find the harshest, most violent music works wonders for my code. Frequent fliers on my work playlist include Ministry, J.G. Thirwell, Front 242, Skinny Puppy and Death.
blackheartmachine on June 23, 2009 2:26 AMFor those that would like to experience the full horror of this music...
http://www.mixwit.com/widgets/e65bc88e4706d1652b3c845336fc4acc
We tend to have dance/ambient music playing in the studio (or Radiohead - In Rainbows, an album I loved until the tech director decided to play it on repeat for 3 weeks!) so I tend to pop my earphones on and listen to my own stuff.
Normally it's indie or punk rock, but it differs quite a bit. At the moment my guilty pleasure is Alphabeat, cheesy cheesy pop...but so happy and bouncy if find it good to work to.
Aaron Bassett on February 6, 2010 10:38 PMI like music too much to use it as background music while programming. Either I'm listening to it, or I'm not. If I'm not listening to it, it might as well be off. If I AM listening to it, I'm not thinking.
Benton Jackson on February 6, 2010 10:38 PMI usually code to a mix of Enya and Clannad. I've got over seven hours of it in iTunes, so it doesn't get repetitive and it's nice for background music. I agree with the others who say that listening to something really helps me focus. I think it occupies the part of my brain that would normally wander and distract me from the task at hand.
Shannon on February 6, 2010 10:38 PMI agree with a previous comment.. that the only music I can listen to is music that I already know well, such as my Beatles collection. Otherwise I find myself too distracted.
Also, I'm not a techno fan but sometimes those beats are good for coding, anything without lyrics for me is good for programming.
I usually choose to listen to online radio because even thought I have tons of mp3s I find myself spending too much time hitting the next song shortcut key until I find a song I want listen to.
jayson on February 6, 2010 10:38 PMYou iPod folks. I'm still not there...
Since I'm virtually always connected I just installed the Shoutcast DSP on a machine and stream it from a shoutcast service. I could see the same thing working for a team... collaborative playlist.
And Having My Baby is truly a bringer of smiles.
rwheadon on February 6, 2010 10:38 PMThe comments to this entry are closed.
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