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Really? What's next? The Five Best Coding Drinks? Air Fresheners? Light Bulbs? Anyway, music is such a subjective choice. Plus, listening to music (or anythi

by cletus 15y ago

Really? What's next? The Five Best Coding Drinks? Air Fresheners? Light Bulbs? Anyway, music is such a subjective choice. Plus, listening to music (or anything really) while performing any kind of cognitive task has generally been shown to be a distraction [1] [2] [3] (and others). [2] has an interesting quote: > IT105 students did not perform as well with music on the graded labs 2 out of 3 times while IT155 students performed better while listening to music. The inverted-U hypothesis also known as the Yerkes-Dodson law [10] can be applied to the results. The inverted-U hypothesis predicts performance improves on a task with increased emotional arousal up to a point after which performance on the task deteriorates. The optimal level of arousal for a task depends on the complexity of the task. When the task is complex a low level of arousal is optimal. When the task is simple a higher level of arousal will lead to peak performance. [1]: http://iris.lib.neu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=honors_projects&sei-redir=1#search=study+listen+to+music+distraction+problem+solving http://iris.lib.neu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&#38... [2]: http://www.asee.org/documents/sections/middle-atlantic/spring-2008/02-Programming-to-Music.pdf http://www.asee.org/documents/sections/middle-atlantic/sprin... [3]: http://www.quora.com/Does-listening-to-music-while-programming-really-increase-a-programmers-performance http://www.quora.com/Does-listening-to-music-while-programmi...

nicksergeant 15y ago
The distraction bit is generally subjective, as well. Without music, I'm distracted by other things that actually pull me away from the computer. With music, I'm glued. I found the list to be helpful, actually.
cosgroveb 15y ago
This submission is light on content, heavy on subjective music taste (and Amazon affiliate links). It's only tangentially related to programming (if at all) and has nothing to do with startups. I know someone is going to quote the guidelines which say "Anything that good hackers would find interesting" but let's be honest: this submission is pretty weak.
- JonnieCache 15y ago
  The submission may be little more than amazon-whoring, but this little discussion about distraction we're having here is pretty good. Another interesting part of the second study was the finding that music was less distracting for those students involved in honors courses, and for the most competent it appeared to help them. This fits with the fact that the task was about learning java, and as such is not the best model of the average HN user's day. While we all maintain that "every day is a learning experience" and we're constantly taking on new skills, an 8 hour workday spent writing rails code is manifestly not the same as taking your first steps into Java at university.
- getsat 15y ago
  OP's only submissions are to articles on this domain, too. Undisclosed affiliate links are tacky, but he'll probably make a few hundred $$$ off of getting this story on the frontpage since anything you buy on Amazon in the next 24 hours he will get credited for. How much karma do you need to be able to downvote stories?
dsmithn 15y ago
Yes, some of these "best of" lists come of as a little too scientific, but I always add ", IMO" to end of the heading and don't think much about it.
tudorizer 15y ago
I would add to you list: best shoes to wear while coding, best carpet, best candles and, of course, best room paint color. This is what real men care about while coding, not algorithms, design patterns and all those girly topics.
chrislomax 15y ago
I actually found this article useful. I wouldn't actually listen to any of the albums but I find I do make a concious effort to pick what I listen to carefully before setting out for a day of coding. I actually find I do my best and fastest work listening to drum and bass. You could find a lot of things distracting when coding, personally I find the sound of tractors and drill saws out the window distracting so I escape to music.

by cletus 15y ago

nicksergeant 15y ago

The distraction bit is generally subjective, as well. Without music, I'm distracted by other things that actually pull me away from the computer. With music, I'm glued. I found the list to be helpful, actually.

cosgroveb 15y ago

This submission is light on content, heavy on subjective music taste (and Amazon affiliate links). It's only tangentially related to programming (if at all) and has nothing to do with startups. I know someone is going to quote the guidelines which say "Anything that good hackers would find interesting" but let's be honest: this submission is pretty weak.

JonnieCache 15y ago
The submission may be little more than amazon-whoring, but this little discussion about distraction we're having here is pretty good. Another interesting part of the second study was the finding that music was less distracting for those students involved in honors courses, and for the most competent it appeared to help them. This fits with the fact that the task was about learning java, and as such is not the best model of the average HN user's day. While we all maintain that "every day is a learning experience" and we're constantly taking on new skills, an 8 hour workday spent writing rails code is manifestly not the same as taking your first steps into Java at university.
getsat 15y ago
OP's only submissions are to articles on this domain, too. Undisclosed affiliate links are tacky, but he'll probably make a few hundred $$$ off of getting this story on the frontpage since anything you buy on Amazon in the next 24 hours he will get credited for. How much karma do you need to be able to downvote stories?

dsmithn 15y ago

Yes, some of these "best of" lists come of as a little too scientific, but I always add ", IMO" to end of the heading and don't think much about it.

tudorizer 15y ago

I would add to you list: best shoes to wear while coding, best carpet, best candles and, of course, best room paint color. This is what real men care about while coding, not algorithms, design patterns and all those girly topics.

chrislomax 15y ago

I actually found this article useful. I wouldn't actually listen to any of the albums but I find I do make a concious effort to pick what I listen to carefully before setting out for a day of coding. I actually find I do my best and fastest work listening to drum and bass. You could find a lot of things distracting when coding, personally I find the sound of tractors and drill saws out the window distracting so I escape to music.