RE: PPIG discuss: Problems sitting on the seat (acquiring the seat) while Programming.

[Carl Chilley]

Good points re the memory issues. Add to this the “superman syndrome” and this is pressing reason enough to partition your work time slots and breaks.   Carl   Superman syndrome. Idea from the 80s whereby you have a full size cardboard cut-out of Superman standing behind you, over one of your shoulders. Whenever you get a problem, you explain what it is to Superman (the cut-out) and, in the vast majority of cases you then see a solution to the articulated problem. There appears to be two reasons for this. Firstly, in formulating your question or concern you are redefining the problem for an external mind other than your own, thereby increasing the likelihood of taking a different perspective on the problem and seeing alternative avenues of approach. Secondly, you are actively being forced out of the narrow domain in which you are working – by yourself – and trying to socialize the issue in some way, providing the insights defined in the first point but also taking you into another discursive (albeit cardboard!) domain. Interestingly enough, I cannot help but think that the way the open source community works – often solo and without much physical interaction with other parties – enables the socialization of a problem through communicating it (in written form) through the email lists, thereby opening out and changing the original perspective on the problem.   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Walter Milner Sent: 27 October 2005 11:59 To: discuss@ppig.org Subject: RE: PPIG discuss: Problems sitting on the seat (acquiring the seat) while Programming.   Lots of reasons why >1.5 hours is of little use. One is risk of RSI. Another is proactive and retroactive inhibition of memory.     From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Babar Abbas Sent: 27 October 2005 03:46 To: discuss@ppig.org Subject: PPIG discuss: Problems sitting on the seat (acquiring the seat) while Programming. Hello all!                I am a programmer from Pakistan, Programming from the past 6 years, as I started my bachelors, in 1998 and I am comparitively good at it. One of the problems that I am facing from the past 3 years or so, as I have started commercial software development, that I can't sit in front of the computer on my seat for more than 1 or 1.5 hours. Some times I did manage to do that, like if i've had a pleasent night chatting with one of my friends, at other most of the times i've struggled a lot, getting up for smoking or for tea, or for a walk at least, the basic purpose of which had been to motivate myself up for sitting on the seat for the next turn.                 As far as my psychological life is concerned I have been through a lot of things, which i can explain well. My new job is going to be started in a company with in the next few days, working in Network Security in Java. Some of my friends claim that they sit for 3 to 4 hours consistently without a rest in front of the computer in a single go. Can some body help with this.   Regards, Babar Abbas. Software Engineer.