

Overcoming coder's block - kesun421
http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2007/01/01/overcoming-coder-block.html

======
patio11
You know how a diabetic needs to keep a quick source of accessible sugar? I
keep a quick source of accessible wins: my "to be implemented on a rainy day"
A/B testing notebook. If I feel like programming and have programming
scheduled but just can't get started for whatever reason, I pop one of those
little candies of coding goodness to grease the wheels. At the very least
they'll force me to get my IDE open, fire up a test suite, bang up some code,
etc etc. After one is done I often feel that, since I'm already programming, I
might as well go on to do whatever I really planned to do today.

There are days when I just can't program. We've all had that day, right? If
I'm in mental shape to do other work, I do other work. If not, I shut down the
machine and go out. (I can't wait until this doesn't require apologizing to my
coworkers for taking the day off.)

------
tonystubblebine
Cory Doctorow has a saying for his writing students: "Surgeons don't get
surgeon's block."

I think the point is that the idea of professional block is just a fancy name
for procrastination. However, I don't think he did any actual research with
surgeons, so I can't say whether they procrastinate or not.

~~~
iends
Surgery is not a creative process, at least, most surgeries shouldn't be.
Instead, surgeries should be performed by somebody who learned about the
procedure in medical school, and then performed it multiple times.

At least, any surgeon I'm paying...

