Hi All,
I thought I would write another blog post that has nothing (well not strictly nothing) to do with Sitecore but to do with coding and developing software. I am constantly in contact and meeting developer’s everyday and a topic that usually comes up is how, when and where you like to code. I personally am the kind of developer that likes to get up early and work on code with little distractions. Most developers I meet are quite the opposite i.e. they like to stay up all night, fuelled by Coffee to the point where their eyelids hurt, their mouth is parched and it is 3 hours before they have to wake up for work. In response to where I like to code, this answer is simple. As the developer myth says, “we like dark rooms, preferably basements to code in”. What a joke! I personally like a well lit room, multi-monitor setup and not a lot happening in the background. As for how, this is the main reason I wanted to write this blog post. Most developers I talk to cannot say enough about coding to music. Some of the best code I have written has been to good music, turned up to max in my headphones. I find that speakers just don’t have the same effect. The idea of shutting off everything around you is the thing that puts you into the coding zone. In light of this I have also discovered that different music works well for different occasions. I thought I would share my list of songs that help with working in different technologies and with different problems.
| Task | Band | Song | Reason |
| Writing CSS | Rage Against the Machine | Bombtrack, Sleep now in the fire, Guerrilla Radio | Simple, IE requires some rage to work with. If it wasn’t for IE I would probably listen to “happy music”. |
| Writing C# | Pendulum | Hold your Colour, Crush, Different, The Tempest | I love fast music whenever I am coding C#, ASP.net or using Visual Studio as it really pushes you to write code fast and get things stubbed out. |
| Building a Sitecore Site from scratch | Tool | Reflection, Jambi, Schism | Because the process can take at least an hour or two to stub out a Sitecore site, I need to listen to something that is epic and build up momentum in the music. That is why Tool is perfect for this. |
| Documentation | Bloc Party | Halo, Mercury | Let’s face it, documentation is boring. I do however need something to go with this to put me in a calming mood and note over think or overanalyse things. |
| Reading and Answering Emails | Audioslave | Gasoline, Cochise, Like a Stone | With the amount of emails I get a day, I need something that puts me in a mood to multitask and work on many things at the same time. I find that Audioslave’s music gives me the sense that….well..there is some light at the end of the tunnel, that light being an empty inbox (it doesn’t happen much) J |
| Writing JavaScript | The Battles | Atlas | There is only one song that helps me with JavaScript and that is “Atlas” by “The Battles”. The reason is simple. I don’t consider myself a great JavaScript developer, however “Atlas” has this kind of computer sounding backing to it which makes me feel I am working with a really simple language. Call me weird, but it works for me. |
| Debugging (FireBug, Reflector, Visual Studio) | A Perfect Circle, Incubus | Three Libra’s, Outsider Remix, Drive, Nowhere Fast, Pardon Me | I need something melodic and calm as I need to pick up bugs, sloppy coding and better ways of implementing my code. |
It would be great to get comments on other songs that help developers, managers, marketers get through their work. I recommending buying the songs I have mentioned above (legally of course) and seeing if they help you as much as they have helped me.
Thanks,
- Tim
