Vviewpoints
DOI: 10.1145/1924421.1924434
Kode Vicious
coder’s Block
Dear KV,
I am a manager of a small development
group and one of my programmers
seems to spend his whole day staring
at his screen but not actually writing
code. He then spends weekends and
nights in the office and eventually
checks in code that actually works, but
whenever I ask him why he is just staring during the day, he replies, “Coder’s
block,” and then continues to stare. It’s
kind of creepy. Is there any such thing
as coder’s block?
not Blocked but Confused
Dear nBC,
Programming is a creative endeavor,
and therefore the short answer is yes,
there is such a thing as coder’s block.
Not only is there such a thing, but there
are also various types and sources of
coder’s block, some of which I will
cover here. If any of these apply to your
programmer, you’ll be able to help
clear the blockage, since that is what
managers are supposed to do.
Perhaps the easiest source of coder’s
block to see and understand is distrac-
one of the best ways
to overcome coder’s
block is to look at
another unrelated
piece of code.
tion. Any modern office environment
is a hotbed of distractions, including
ringing phones, talking coworkers,
people who come by your desk to ask
questions (many of which they could
answer themselves by reading docu-
mentation), meetings, and, of course,
well-meaning managers who drop by
to ask, “How’s it going?” All but the
most trivial coding tasks require quiet
and concentration, and if program-
mers do not get those, then they are not
going to be able to build up the intel-
lectual head of steam they need to solve
complex problems. Time free from dis-
traction also has to be sufficient to the
task. Ask your programmer how long
he gets to sit and think between inter-
ruptions, and you will probably find it
is less than one hour. While some pro-
grams can be designed and finished in
an hour, they are few and far between.
Giving someone who works for you a
few distraction-free hours per day is
one way to help prevent coder’s block.
