Basic needs of programmers

If anyone thinks that the most important thing for programmers is the ability to code - they're wrong. Even if it is a super interesting project that involves millions of users it will fail if programmers have no possibility to meet their basic needs. And I'd like to stress the word possibility.



How many of us, programmers, were sitting in front of a computer for hours without eating, drinking or going to the toilet? Do you remember this project that you had once, when you just have to finish in three day and one test is not passing or you want to make this query run even faster that it could? Or just refactor the code before pushing it so it shines more that it needs? And you were this hacking-freelancer that will do the best project ever! Yes - a freelancer working from home.

It works completely different in the office. You start working with a coffee, water, little chitchat with everyone. You see people going one after another to the toilet, eating snacks, walking around. And then on of them brings the news: there is no running water in the builiding! OMG!! Panic!! How are we gonna pee after first three coffees? We have to go home!! Everyone needs to pee in the exact same moment! Dear God!! I didn't drink anything but maybe I'll need to pee! I have to go home! There is no water running!! NO WATER!!

Forget about programming. This is not freelancing at home, this is working in the office. Even if you don't have to pee, you will leave just because the toilet is out of order. And there is always that argument of Maslow's pyramid.

BTW. I need to pee (excrete) and I'm the only one left in the office... shit...

I'll try again. Polyrhythms and programming.

Welcome again to my regular blog. Keeping the frequency of one post per year is very difficult. Still, I manage.

I opened myself a door to blog not only about programming. All those posts about JavaScript and "so on" that I did through whole last year... life is much more interesting than that.

Recently I started drumming lessons. I played for two years some time ago and then after another two years gap I picked up the sticks again. This time with a different attitude: regular lessons with a teacher. It's been three months by now that I practice 1,5 hour twice a week + almost everyday exercices on the practice pad. I learned the important lesson: regular practice is the ONLY way. Maybe that will help me to maintain a blog.

I also moved to Barcelona, Spain. I work here as a software developer (mostly doing Ruby on Rails) at XING AG. That also gave me a big possibility to even more regular programming and a new approach to it. I'll leave this subject for later though.

Polyrhythms. Strange rhythms. Transposed rhythms. That is where my head is lately. Many times I practice patterns that at the beginning seem impossible (for me) to follow. I still lame (only three months of classes) but I realized that these practices have a big impact on my analytical part of brain. It is a funny feeling. When I started classes, first thing when I got a new pattern to learn I tried to analyze it somehow. I counted at loud and did the beat with my feet and hands. It worked, but...

...sometimes this approach fails! Once I could feel really hard the limitation of analytical approach to try to grasp a rhythm. Everything was fine until I started to learn bossa nova rhythm with paradiddle on hands. When I tried to analyze it before (or while) playing my brain was just frying. All the programming cells tried to accomplish the parsing of the partiture, but with big red failing dot at the end.

The way was, as my teacher told me, to let it go. Close the eyes, reset the mind. Keep the beat with legs only for half a minute. Slowly. Use the body to understand it. And then do the sticks rudiment on top of it. Without thinking!

I was amazed. It worked just fine, the body knew what to do. I knew the bossa nova, I knew the paradiddle, but I had to let it be to make it happen together...

The great part of this story it that now (after two months from what happened...) I can analyze this rhythm with no single problem. Play it with pure analytical approach, no art-spirit involved. Of course it sounds worse this way, and I prefer go with da flow... I wish to know how all that drumming thing impacts my programming skills... it has to be deeply connected.