Some call it eliminating distractions. Some call it flow. Tuning out of your immediate surroundings has been shown to increase focus on internal thinking processes. In this post I’ll dive into both the neurological components as well as folk-advice surrounding this phenomenon.
Working memory is a well studied component of brain physiology and normally associated with the prefrontal cortex. If you, for example, try to memorize a list of random words and repeat them from memory, then you will likely try to put them into working memory. However, this probably won’t allow you to remember more than a few words at a time. Working memory has a very limited capacity.
Memory athletes get around this limitation by using a technique usually called memory palaces. This allows them to offload the majority of memory requirement to spatial memory, which is very closely associated with working memory. These athletes “walk around their internal concept of a palace and “place certain words or objects into a location where they will remember it at the right time. When used correctly this technique can add huge multipliers to the ability to remember what would otherwise be random information.
Programmers use a similar technique to remember and navigate code. However there are limitations, namely that working memory is not completely removed from the picture. Working memory is full of all the things that you are consciously aware of at any given time. That dog sniffing around, the music your deskmate is listening to, the meeting on your schedule, and everything else that you may be worrying about. These things fill your working memory, and are a huge drag on any attempt to work with the code in your head. Too many simultaneous distractions will effectively block any attempt to reach the glorious flow state of mind.
Studies have also shown that once an individual is knocked out of a flow state of mind, it can take up to 20 minutes to get back. Losing concentration can have significant impacts on worker productivity. This is where headphones come in: for programmers wanting to tune out of distraction and stay in the flow, music is a great release and safety measure. On another note, this problem is sometimes less significant in senior programmers, because their understanding of a project or environment has since moved from spatial short-term into spatial long-term memory; the effect being that it is much easier to recall these memories without going into a trance.
So to reiterate: programmers are easily distracted, headphones eliminate some distractions, thus headphones make programmers happy. Personally I have music on almost all the time, with or without code. I just love music.
This post was originally published on medium.com
Latest comments (53)
If you wear headphones without any sound, just to separate the outside world, don't do it. Wear an ear protection instead (and don't care about your colleagues, at least they will know now what's the deal). There are sounds in the 16-20Khz range which you cannot hear already (due to aging), but still can damage your ears. Consider some "funny" guys whose hiding these high pitch sounds in videos or programs...
Maybe it's simply "all programmers just love music", and we create these studies so we can keep listening music...
how about proposing a legislation for banning open space offices for development work? :)
I can't wear headphones while working... or almost any time. I feel trapped, I like to hear noises around me, people chatting or cars passing by, my brain blends everything into white noise I guess... but I need air around my ears. If I listen to music, it has to be on speakers. I have a gift to be able to ignore people. They call me rude, but now everybody accepts it.
I feel like I am on the opposite side of the spectrum. My family has music-oriented heritage, and this impacts my abilities to use music as an environment filter. I listen to EVERYTHING! Every string slide and pluck, every gasp for air before singing, every low-bitrate distortion and even editing errors on some songs. It's very distracting to say the least. In the other hand, my father as a musician and physician as well, makes use of this bionic hearing to auscultate his patients with extreme accuracy of diagnosis.
noisli.com (Fan + Brown noise) combination is great in masking surrounding disturbances, while not being distracting on its own
Love the article! There are days when I put on my headphones and forget to set the music. So the sound of silence is better than someone distracting me hehe...Am I the only one? Hope not.
Oh I wish. Sadly everything even remotely touching my ear starts to hurt after a tiny bit.
In a loud environment and no headphones... what happens? I end up writing really bad code. Ugh.
EDIT: For example,
delete_channel(user.id). I mix up unrelated things.Yes. This is true for me. I usually listen to music when I need to concentrate and not loose my flow of thoughts. There is no specific music that one needs to listen to. Only any music which you like and helps you concentrate.
Really nice post. Cheers :)
This is one of the main reasons I love programming, which is listening to my music all the time. I'm a music nerd and I always have a bunch of new releases waiting... Though sometimes it can be distracting, for example while reading something new you need to understand at first (for example reading React articles and tutorials at the moment).
I'd like to share a playlist I made for coding. It's mostly electronic mellow beats, hope you like it: open.spotify.com/user/jaime_41/pla...