emmajane.net

I was looking for something in my tomboy notes and found some notes from Alan Carter's presentation at OSCON. I remember I was deeply interested in what he had to say and I thought I'd dump the notes here in case it's of interest to you as well.

The Effects of Stress on Programmers' and Groups' Performance

Alan Carter, OSCON 2008

• "your mental desktop shrinks to be less than the problem you're trying to solve when you're stressed"
• co-workers telling you how to "fix" code while looking over your shoulder:
• preaching is the lack of direct perception
• preaching doesn't lead to good practice.

You need context to collaborate. If you are stressed your mental desktop is too small collaborate. Non-stressed people write beautiful code.

Open Source:
Open source is a voluntary activity by like minded people. They are like minded because they can see complex stuff. Peer recognition maintains a population inversion. Creativity and process are complementary. Now you know why your programming "den" is important!

Closed source implications:
Reduce the light levels to reduce the stress. Creates a library effect. Take out half the bulbs to reduce the light. Assure privacy (avoid open plans), control bells and conversation. There is never a time code for managing the time management system (pathological admin). Provide good reason to have self-confidence. Know what is not your problem so that you can give the full mental desktop to the actual problem at hand. Just because someone has a big desktop doesn't mean they know it. Display of anxiety is considered acceptable, but that limits the ability to produce work. Juxtapositional thinking is so rare that it is mythical. The artists live somewhere else. All creative programmers and artists regularly escape.

Cocaine and stress have the same effects. They both reduce situational awareness while inducing excesss self-confidence (also happens in failing software projects). Stress causes relapse. Anxious children succumb to addiction in school. No one would realize the children were doing things that habitually reduced cognitive awareness.

Books to read
Narcissistic process and corporate decay by howard schwartz -- the theory of the organization ideal. American Mania (people go to work to chase dopamine/stress) by peter whybrow. Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand).

W Edwards Deming's 14 points:
Drive out fear, break down barriers. Eliminate slogans and targets for the work force. Remove yourself from habituated behaviours.

Artists and Hackers. We all lose the ability to think when under stress, but some people seek out stress. ADHD.....

Rand Corporation stress and performance: a review of the literary and military performance.

Alan's Web site: www.the-programmers-stone.com

-30-

PS Of course I'd like to pretend this is completely irrelevant to my life right now, but the book is coming along slowly. Chapter Five has been gutted and I am in the process of re-writing it. Some elements remain. This week I am also out of town to deliver an on-site training session for a client and deliver two conference presentations at the FSOSS conference (Subverting Proprietary Economics) and Ontario Linux Fest (Version control for mere and freelance mortals) (both in Toronto). I look forward to seeing you at these two fantastic conferences! If you see me, please say hi! You might need to remind of my name when you introduce yourself though. ;)