I still haven't found what I'm malloc()ing for: U2 tops poll of music today's devs code to Time to put to bed once and for all the image of the hip young hacker pounding out code to cutting-edge techno music. It turns out that today's devs prefer to work to most of the same tunes your mom plays while driving to the store. A study from survey and research company Qualtrics found that while nearly all developers like …
My daughter and I both like to listen to metal-type music when we hack up some silly little Arduino/Raspberry Pi project together.
I've introduced her to the "classics": Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Motörhead, and U.D.O.. She's shown me Avatar, Battlebeast, Sabaton, and Volbeat. There's nary a Taylor Swift or Katie Perry n sight (or in hearing) here!
Oh yes, some classic rock there!
I much prefer to crank up more extreme Scandinavian prog metal, Insommnium, Ghost Brigade, Swallow the Sun, chuck in a bit of trad death and thrash to break up the day. It's incredibly relaxing listening to some nutter screaming and grunting at the top of his lungs, no seriously it is! I used to have a colleague who also found it much better for him to code while listening to such music as Amon Amarth and other viking metal treats.
I assume it's something to do with the fact that you can't hear the words, a death grunt vocalist sounds like just another instrument. A very low register and no distracting words in the music I can concentrate more I suppose.
Your typical startup-style, no rest for the wicked binge coding is best written to "Jesus Christ Superstar". You also find that you tend to follow the script too. You code to The Getsemane, you live by The Getsemane:
Then I was inspired, now I'm sad and tired
Listen, surely I've exceeded expectations
Tried for three years, seems like thirty
Could you ask as much from any other man?
So after you have been run like a slave for 3 years, the Getsemane commands you to get up and f*** leave. I did it at my last job - the whole project was pretty much written with Jesus Christ Superstar on the stereo 24x7x365. Then after 3 years I had enough, I got up and left.
Working late in the evening meant an otherwise empty office - so the Libera choir CDs could go on full blast. Eventually had to buy their CDs for the security guards and cleaners too.
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I was wondering if these numbers came from the coding boot camps in the US. They enroll the otherwise unemployable so they can become developers - because it's just that easy, isn't it? I imagine they are then employed by the government, because that would explain so much.
These artists?! Your problem is they all have vocals, can't work with vocals. Can't work near the kitchen breakout area in the open plan office either. Some people left for another office now there's more open space fewer desks: Great! Nope, PMs and C*O come stroll around loudly talking on their mobiles in the empty area now. Someone back in accounts clearly can't see their desk phone flashing in their face so the ringtone volume is turned to 11.. The IT tech support guys, bless them, get bored and start playing music on some Sonos, which I personally find as the most anti-social thing you can do in an open plan office (and yes generic crap music from in the survey). Not to mention some of the girls and guys I can hear shouting to each other across the entire office asking questions. Why are people so afraid of silence? I like to play music (usually to block all the above (and yes usually disgusting (to some people) military grade jungle or hardcore or acid tekno with a K) but I use earphones!!! I don't blast it to everyone). Nothing beats silence.
Do I sound upset?
This is the problem with noise-blocking headphones. They're OK at blocking drone noises but not at speech - it's not predictable enough. And the manufacturers often consider it an advantage : remove jet noise but be able to hear your companion.
For dev work you want to block the speech and allow the drone noise through. I don't think drowning speech out is ever going to work.
"I find that words distract (maybe uses the same part of my brain that I use for coding)"
How about instrumental jazz and JPOP (since it's in a foreign lingo that I'm not entirely familiar with, the words just run by like it's part of the music when I listen to it). Then again, you can't understand Robert Plant at all... so maybe some old Zeppelin too?
I've wanted to use music to block office noise but never found anything suitable. Stuff I like distracts me. So does stuff I don't like. Pap is just irritating .. you can ignore it for a while then it just overwhelms you with horror.
Working at home is OK - the noises are birdsong and distant voices, easier to tune out and not so silent that the computer fan becomes a raging whirlwind.
"Pap is just irritating .. you can ignore it for a while then it just overwhelms you with horror."
whenever "that band who shall not be named that sounds like you hold your nose while singing something repetitive and stupid about sharing a lonely view with birds" comes on the radio, I am _COMPELLED_ to shut that @#$% off NOW, dammit! like that?
yeah, better to have an icecast server of your own, with your own playlists, and an internet-capable radio-like device plugged into the big system, that you can switch to if "other people's playlists" start sucking or something.
Silence is very good, but sometimes you get something in your eye, or they just get a bit itchy from staring too much at the screen and you need to get the old eye juices going. Something like hearing Sandy Denny on Fairport Convention's "Unhalfbricking" clears out my tear ducts, before it even gets to "Who knows here the time goes". Richard Thompson's guitar backing it up is just devastating...
Workin' for The Man from the five sided building on the Potomac:
Stage 1: pointy hair says, "You shouldn't play music as someone may take offense to its content." Rather than trust people to act like adults and negotiate a mutually acceptable compromise... ban the music! Heaven forbid we talk to one another and, I dont know - bond and form teams, maybe even grow to see each other as unique and valuable human beings?
Stage 2: We will pipe in sound for you from a noncontroversial source. Ok - I was hoping for a good brown noise gen. What we got is either alternating between left and right wing 'news' stations - both batshit crazy - or the Weather Channel. Someone hijacked the feed to give us South Park re-runs and almost got himself fired. That itself would be worthy of a South Park episode. Deep, man.
Stage 3: For reasons I completely understand and approve of we cannot use personal CDs in the Man's machines, and nor can we have our phones or other electronics near same. Ok, no problem - old school Sony Discman to the rescue
Stage 4: You can have your discman but no speakers. You CANNOT have personally owned headphones (per 'security') so you can only use headphones if provided by The Man
Stage 5: The Man doesnt buy stuff for your personal use Period. And even if he did, you dare not plug it into your personal discman - that would be a 'security issue'
I hit the silk!!
U2 - contractor, well off, nearing retirement. Owns second (or more) investment properties. Fairly good at job, but unbearably smug with it. Not as irreplaceable as he thinks he is. Will be ejected with little notice as part of a cost-saving exercise. Tax expert, Tory voter. Talks about retiring abroad, but never will.
Taylor Swift - web 'developer'. Probable man-bun and twat-beard. Generally harmless, but also generally useless. Good taste in coffee; proud Apple Watch wearer. Wanted the ceramic version, but couldn't afford it, due to a recent rent increase on his Old Street flat. Big on social media but little of worth to say.
The Beatles - permie, nearing retirement. Slow coder, pedantic. Big fan of The North Face back-packs, jackets. Cycles to work - a MAMIL. Doesn't look good in Lycra. Smells of sweat, but no-one's told him yet. DevOps and Agile fan. Wears a Citizen watch. Inoffensive to all.
Maroon 5 - thinks he moves like Jagger, but actually moves like Merkel. Sad-dad. Universally laughed at. No-one quite gets how he passed the interview, having produced absolutely nothing of note since.
Linkin Park - Balding with pony-tail. Teenage kids. Unfulfilled life, stay-at-home wife. Miserable, but quite nice if you talk to them. Deeply in love with the young executive assistant who in return doesn't notice him at all. Quietly agrees with Brexit.
Katy Perry - just a complete talentless twat. Same for the developer. Listening to Katy Perry should be grounds for dismissal.
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