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If the coding is routine, I sometimes listen to my favorite music (EBM or psy/goa trance) while coding. I especially like to listen to music while coding if I'm in a noisy environment (earplugs are good too).

However, when I get to a really difficult problem, I prefer total silence without any distractions. Again, earplugs are good for that. But if I need to, I'll go for a walk somewhere quiet to think about it (somewhere with a whiteboard, and/or maybe talk the problem over with a friend/colleague). Or I might even have to sleep on it. In all of these cases, there's no music involved. Music is more for the relatively easy/routine coding.




Same here. Basically, I don't want music while I'm in the process of figuring out how to go about doing something, but there's nothing better than a good beat (Infected Mushroom for me) while actually doing it.

When I'm doing design, music just distracts me -- but when I'm hammering out code, a repetitive rhythm definitely helps to keep me focused. It is strange that music has different effects depending on what kind of thinking the brain is doing. I wonder why that is...




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