
Stress makes programmers dumber? - messel
http://messel.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/stress-makes-programmers-dumber.html
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piramida
Try phone interview at google to get that "really dumb" feeling after an hour
of answering tricky questions - all of which are real easy when relaxed, but
not when there is an "invisible interviewer" waiting on the other end.

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messel
Just an update I moved the blog to <http://www.victusspiritus.com/> this post
is now at [http://www.victusspiritus.com/2009/04/12/stress-makes-
progra...](http://www.victusspiritus.com/2009/04/12/stress-makes-programmers-
dumber/)

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noss
One "kind of dumb" that worries me is based on
<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=tough-choices-how-making> "Tough Choices:
How Making Decisions Tires Your Brain".

If I spend all day programming, making micro-decisions like if i should
refactor some code, if i should put the extra effort into some code or if i am
not going to need it, pondering what to benchmark, deciding on how to unit
test something... how good of a decision maker am i when i leave work?

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qaexl
Interesting cross-links between this article and
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=559411>

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andrewbadera
Duh. Stress makes everyone dumber.

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qaexl
The linked series of blog articles on the-programmers-stones.com goes into
great detail about the stress process.

They were written from the context of: "Here is how to build a team of
rockstar programmers out of otherwise ordinary programmers, _if_ you can
create these specific necessary conditions." Talk about a competitive edge
right there.

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messel
I was knocked off my chair the first read through, hence the blog post. This
is just something programmers don't talk about. You just assume everyone is
stressed, you never look into the neurological systems, but that's precisely
what a good programmer would have done!

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qaexl
I was kinda dismissive of your blog post ... out of random impulse, I clicked
through the link and was just as impressed as you were. There's a lot of
interesting things in there. I've been talking to my business partner and my
friends about it ... and trying to apply it elsewhere too.

Later that day, I stumbled through Steve Blank's blog and greatly enjoyed that
too. One particular article, [http://steveblank.com/2009/04/09/supermac-war-
story-6-the-jo...](http://steveblank.com/2009/04/09/supermac-war-story-6-the-
job-of-marketing-mission-statements-mission-intent-and-core-values/) ... has
much of the same ideas, though it didn't go into the details of the
neuroscience. Based on the neuroscience from the juxtapositional thinking blog
though, it definitely explained why SGB was able to build such a great team.

Thanks for linking this. It's going to affect a lot of what I set things up
from now on.

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messel
It was my sincere pleasure. Thanks for taking the time to read it.

