Ask HN: What Music Do You Listen To While Coding?
Just curious what music you all listen to while coding (can be genre, specific artist, song, or random). No one is judging you here.
There was something in PeopleWare (I think) about an experiment done with people listening to music. Those listening to their preferred music performed about as well as those who preferred silence and got it, and about as well as those who preferred music, but had silence. The group that preferred silence but had music performed, unsurprisingly, comparatively badly.
The sting in the tail was this. The task they were given had an "Aha!" insight buried in it. Namely, the full set of transforms they'd been asked to implement turned out to be trivial, although the individual components weren't.
All the programmers who had the "Aha!" moment had silence, regardless of their preference. No one with music saw the short cut.
I've since tried to find concrete evidence to support this anecdote, either papers, or first hand accounts, but the recounting in PeopleWare remains the only reference I have.
Death Metal or Screamo type stuff can wash over you without engaging much of your thought process.
I dont have a study to back that up :) but I know Im not alone in experiencing this (and I think it actually backs up what your saying too).
Especially:
http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=193120
Previous times this question has been asked:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=61831
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=212682
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=367418
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If I'm not coding, or if I'm coding something that really doesn't require much thought, then I like Bach's harpsichord or piano music. Predules, Fugues, two and three part inventions.
I had the misfortune (or good fortune) to grow up next to a gifted musician - with a massively diverse musical taste. An example playlist I clearly remember from my late-late teens (blaring out from the room next door) went along the lines of: Slipknot, Spice Girls, Bach, Eminem, Metallica (or something like that). That kind of thing, apparently., rubs off :D
I don't consider coding an easy or natural activity to me... until I really get into sort of a zone. Sometimes I have to close my eyes (as well as ears) and stop staring at the screen... so that complete lack of input lets my brain percolate a fresh way of looking at a project.
What can I say? There's lots of different mind-styles out there. Took me a long time to find my own.
I will tend to listen to the same general artists/tracks because I don't want the distraction of new data, but I do like using music as a sort of click-track to provide a tempo for what I'm working on.
Sometimes Mozart or some random classical music - it boosts me up at unexpected times. I often tune into online musical stations, but the ads distract me. If I am reading, sometimes, a violin concerto puts me into zone. It's better than random distractions.
At the odd times, when I am really comfortable (as in not stopping to think)- instrumental techno trance.
I have also tried white noise - can't do it for more than an hour max. but it works for me - is my preferred listening 'music' - actually a session of white noise helps me concentrate for couple of hours.
That, and random OP/EDs from anime.