hammock driven development...

[Jules]

I'm a bit late watching this :

http://blip.tv/clojure/hammock-driven-development-4475586

but thought I would comment anyway :

I enjoyed it and identified with most of it - Having worked in commercial and open source programming I can say that from experience that the latter gives you the most opportunities for this - selling hammock driven development to a manager would be hard.

I'd also like to say this - TAKE THE HAMMOCK BIT SERIOUSLY - there is a growing body or research that indicates that you can problem solve better lying down. This may stem from the release of certain hormones, increased blood supply, maybe simply the fact that you are not wasting cycles and bandwidth trying to stay upright etc...

I don't have a hammock but I have all my best ideas lying down. far more, in fact,  than I have ever had sitting bolt upright at work, which is unfortunately where I spend most of my time.

Was Archimedes sitting or lying in his bath I wonder :-) ?

cheers

Jules

[Brian Marick]

On Jun 9, 2011, at 3:27 PM, Jules wrote:
> I'd also like to say this - TAKE THE HAMMOCK BIT SERIOUSLY - there is a growing body or research that indicates that you can problem solve better lying down. This may stem from the release of certain hormones, increased blood supply, maybe simply the fact that you are not wasting cycles and bandwidth trying to stay upright etc...

I heard Guy Steele say he gets his best ideas in the shower. Since he has more brilliant ideas than any ten impressive people, he must take a lot of showers.

I too get my best ideas in the shower. Or on long walks.

Mileage varies.

-----
Brian Marick, Artisanal Labrador
Contract programming in Ruby and Clojure
Occasional consulting on Agile
www.exampler.com, www.twitter.com/marick

[Devin Walters]

Two words came to mind when I saw Rich give this talk: mindfulness meditation.

I've found that when I try and focus too hard on a problem I get tunnel vision and ruminate instead of thinking /about/ and /around/ the problem I'm trying to solve. I really do need to detach and let the problem grow on its own for a bit. But how? What does that look like? It's different for everyone but a couple of things I notice:

You'll frequently hear in guided mindfulness practices a line or two about noticing your body's contact with the floor, cushion, mat, etc. so the laying down research seems consistent with my personal experience. On that note, I think hammocks in general naturally lead me to notice that contact, what with the floating, swinging, etc.

However, it won't really work for me if I lay in a hammock and actively attach some agenda to the act of laying there. For instance, having the thought: "I'm laying in a hammock to have a good idea." over and over doesn't work for me. I doubt most people get in the shower with a serious plan to have a great idea, it's the kind of thing that just sort of happens when you're in neutral. Finding neutral activities like walking, laying in the hammock, washing the dishes, sweeping up for the experience of sweeping up, etc. doesn't seem to be the hard part. The hard part seems to be getting rid of the agenda or expectation I have that a particular action will yield a result. I suppose that's why I practice.

2c,

-- 
Devin Walters

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[Raoul Duke]

"The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."

[Luc Prefontaine]

A hot bath is for me is the best moment to do this. I let my mind loose not thinking
about anything specific.
My wife think I am in this state continuously but that's another discussion :).

Of course, using a hammock outside here in January/February by -25 Celsius would
literally freeze my mind (I live in Montreal, Quebec)

Lying down seems to be essential for this to work at least for me.
It's not sleeping, it's being in that intermediate state just
before falling into it.

I have been doing this for years and it's only with Rich's presentation
that I realized that this stuff was no accident.

It's an efficient thinking process and it's not restricted to my bath.
I remember mornings where I woke up and wrote solutions on paper,
they literally popped in my mind suddenly by the moment I woke up.

Luc P.

--
Luc P.

================
The rabid Muppet

[Pedro Teixeira]

You might also enjoy the talk 'Where Good Ideas Come From' ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU&feature=share

[Nick Brown]

Going for walks also helps me. Having some form a mild physical
activity that I don't have to concentrate on seems to help me think.
It can be a walk around the block, a hike through the park, or just
walking around the office. You also get the added benefits of it
being good for your health, and you can get away with it easier at
work.
And while I like my hammock, lying down it in often results in me
falling asleep (and waking up covered in mosquito bites). Though I
seem to remember Rich suggesting much of your thinking goes on while
you are asleep (but in your bed will probably result in fewer mosquito
bites, especially in North Carolina summers).

I think my notes from that talk read something like this:
Bring hammock to work. :)
Go to sleep sober. :(

Nick Brown
http://standardout.wordpress.com/

[Laurent PETIT]

Would be very funny if for the upcoming clojure conj, attendants as
well as speakers were all lying in hammocks !
That certainly would make the Buzz ! :-D

2011/6/12 Nick Brown <nwb...@gmail.com>:

[Devin Walters]

It might get people to quit looking at their infernal phones and laptops for 5 minutes. ;)

-- 
Devin Walters

[miner]

Here's some more support for the hammock:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/06/20/137300311/why-hammocks-make-sleep-easier-deeper

> Rocking increased the length of N2 sleep, a form of non-REM sleep that takes up about half of a good night's rest. It also increased slow oscillations and "sleep spindles." Sleep spindles are brief bursts of brain activity, which look like sudden up-and-down scribbles on an electroencephalogram.

> "We were basically trying to find a scientific demonstration of this notion of rocking to sleep,"Michel Muehlethaler, a professor of neuroscience who conducted the research with Schwartz, tells Shots. The fact that the brain waves changed so much, he says, was "totally unexpected." The results were published in the journal Current Biology.

> Sleep spindles are associated with tranquil sleep in noisy environments and may be a sign that the brain is trying to calm sleepers stuck in them. Spindles also have been linked with the ability to remember new information. And that is associated with the brain's ability to rewire itself, known as brain plasticity.

[James Keats]

On Jun 21, 6:54 pm, miner <stevemi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Here's some more support for the hammock:
>

> http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/06/20/137300311/why-hammocks-mak...
>


If this is going to be anything like those ambient orbs, then I better
hurry up and invest in hammocks.