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I've had several nights where my dreams are just trying to solve programming problems, but in my experience it always breaks down and ends up useless because lo

by 63 5y ago

I've had several nights where my dreams are just trying to solve programming problems, but in my experience it always breaks down and ends up useless because logic doesn't make sense in the dream. Everything in the dream is inconsistent and changes from one minute to the next, but some part of my brain is still trying to solve the problem.

3pt14159 5y ago
The worst is dreaming and using emacs in the dream. I get around the code so fast because at this point it feels like an extension of my own mind, but in a dream state my brain can't make the code on the screen make anywhere close to as much sense and it doesn't react fast enough when I kill a line or jump around looking for a new block of code. Also, just reading the text itself is alien. Because it's colourful and code-looking, but my mind can't quite get the monospacing right. So outside the direct bit of code I'm looking at, the code gets kinda blurry or wobbly.
golergka 5y ago
> Everything in the dream is inconsistent and changes from one minute to the next That's something that can be very useful in problem solving. Helps you finding new ideas. The hard thing is grabbing this idea and waking yourself up when you strike gold.
scott-smith_us 5y ago
I had one of these when I was in my early twenties. I had been trying to locate a persistent crash that seemed to occur randomly in a modem terminal written in 6502 assembly. I'd been at this non-stop for weeks, and had been just working and sleeping, poring over and over the code with no clue. As I remember it, one night I was dreaming that the code was slowly scrolling up a screen in front of me, and one line was colored red. I woke up at that point and knew what the problem was. I think I just got dressed and went directly into work rather than try to go back to sleep. Since then, I've had fresh insights after sleeping on a problem and coming back in the next day, but I've never had another instance of my brain saying "It's right here, you idiot!" to me in a dream.

by 63 5y ago

3pt14159 5y ago

The worst is dreaming and using emacs in the dream. I get around the code so fast because at this point it feels like an extension of my own mind, but in a dream state my brain can't make the code on the screen make anywhere close to as much sense and it doesn't react fast enough when I kill a line or jump around looking for a new block of code. Also, just reading the text itself is alien. Because it's colourful and code-looking, but my mind can't quite get the monospacing right. So outside the direct bit of code I'm looking at, the code gets kinda blurry or wobbly.

golergka 5y ago

> Everything in the dream is inconsistent and changes from one minute to the next That's something that can be very useful in problem solving. Helps you finding new ideas. The hard thing is grabbing this idea and waking yourself up when you strike gold.

scott-smith_us 5y ago

I had one of these when I was in my early twenties. I had been trying to locate a persistent crash that seemed to occur randomly in a modem terminal written in 6502 assembly. I'd been at this non-stop for weeks, and had been just working and sleeping, poring over and over the code with no clue. As I remember it, one night I was dreaming that the code was slowly scrolling up a screen in front of me, and one line was colored red. I woke up at that point and knew what the problem was. I think I just got dressed and went directly into work rather than try to go back to sleep. Since then, I've had fresh insights after sleeping on a problem and coming back in the next day, but I've never had another instance of my brain saying "It's right here, you idiot!" to me in a dream.