on thinking in code: after doing a rather intense data integration/normalization/clean up project for many hours ending around 5 am or so, i had to take a shower before catching a nap. upon turning on the shower, my tired mind took a minute to organize/process the physical actions required to put myself into the shower - suddenly it wasn't a shower at all, rather, it was an array of droplets i had to somehow JOIN but the query was already running! all of this data was going down the drain - corrupted with no audit trails - but what regex/match would help? there was none... luckily, i snapped out of it and regained the proper level of abstraction conducive to good hygiene. apparently, i only had to step under the water. rest would work itself out with little need for analytic involvement.
after that, with sleep & time to breathe i went back and checked my work from that night because i assumed that a mind so frazzled would be similarly error prone. alas, that mode of thought, while not suited for normal-person-tasks worked well for the project. no bugs (from that night at least) and that single all nighter put the whole thing way ahead of schedule.