5 ms·
As someone who was a grad student in an apartment with poor heating: it's not worth it. Eat appropriately, and exercise. The bloody cold numbs your brain too. I
by arjie 12y ago
As someone who was a grad student in an apartment with poor heating: it's not worth it. Eat appropriately, and exercise. The bloody cold numbs your brain too. I also remember reading, though I can't find a good source now, that programmers perform better when warmer (until a point, maybe 27 degrees C).
Besides, exercising feels good, while this feels bad. Might as well enjoy yourself.
- eru 12y agoMy Cambridge (UK) house regularly got to 8-12 C in winter. I only turned on the heat for guests. It's not too bad, if you get used to it. Running barefoot in the snow can be fun, too. (But I wouldn't want to have to stand in one place.)
- thrownaway2424 12y agoWould like to see a source for that claim. 27C is pretty hot and multiple studies have found that temperature to be suboptimal for classroom performance (which may not by indicative of programmer productivity, I guess). "... the performance of two numerical and two language-based tests was significantly improved when the temperature was reduced from 25°C to 20°C (77°F to 68°F)." http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10789669.2007.10390951#.VKDzRsBrA http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10789669.2007.103...
- arjie 12y agoIt's probably this source that I misremembered (the numbers are close enough for me to have made a mistake). That explains why I couldn't find anything. Thanks.
- Raphmedia 12y agoI feel like all this talk is nonsense and people should simply work at the temperature they feel comfortable at. Offices should be at a neutral temperature and provide personal heaters. I keep my room around 28C during the winter and 35C in the summer. The office I work at is set to 21C. I hate it and feel like I work better when I'm hotter. I doubt there is a magic number that would have everyone work faster.
- thrownaway2424 12y agoYou must have a well-built house :-) I feel lucky if any part of my house reaches 20C.
- arjie 12y agoOh certainly, I didn't mean that there was some magic number. I just wanted to say that obviously temperature extremes don't work. I should never have mentioned that 27 C thing (which was just a misremembered number). It isn't even my own favourite.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago20C is ideal, 25C is too hot. In China, they always try cutting the AC back, and I always have to complain about it. It is difficult programming when your arms are sticking to the desk. Also, humidity has a lot to do with it (AC will remove humidity from the air as much as it will cool it).
- hnhg 12y agoIt depends on the individual.
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoIt depends on the humidity. 25C at 50+% humidity feels pretty bad.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoDeserts are nice. I prefer low humidity like Salt Lake City, Denver, Reno, or even the bay area (not technically a desert, but pretty dry). Even Seattle has a nice climate since the mountains push the humidity up so high that it rains rather than gets bogged down in the air. Beijing is technically dry but can get really humid in the summer (dry windless winters, humid windless summers, go figure).
- emptybits 12y agoThere are quite a few studies that suggest the brain performs better when it's cooler. Three are discussed here. ("Cool room" was 19 C, "warm room" was 25 C.) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/warm-weather-makes-it-hard-think-straight/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/warm-weather-makes... TL;DR: One study suggests ability to recognize spelling and grammar mistakes improves in a cool room. A second study suggests ability to do math and make a correct decision based on it improves in the cool room. The third study suggests people in a warm room prefer to avoid complex cognitive decisions and rely on simpler patters of decision making even when it resulted in inferior choices. YMMV. Empirically, I focus and perform better when a room is 18 - 19 C (below "room temperature", which seems to be 20 to 22 C). I am Canadian.
- eropple 12y agoI think you're projecting with this. I find 60 degrees F (around 16 degrees C) comfortable and I'm happy and productive working at that temperature. Getting up past 21 or 22 degrees C and I start hating life.