Programmers Need Diversion

I found mine in the New York Times

Some programmers game. Some drink. Some smoke. Some read. Some write. Some run.

(Full disclosure: I only run when chased.)

I found my go-to diversion a couple of decades ago. I’d take the New York Times crossword puzzle to work. You can subscribe to an online version or, as tablets appeared, on an iPad or other device. I’d also print one out to leave in the breakroom with a pen. A subscription is less than $50 a year. You do not need to subscribe to the paper.

Whenever the code I was producing was too messy, too complicated, or I was just stuck, it made it hard to “find the zone.”

That is when I’d work the crossword. On good days, when I was really in the zone, I never got around to it and finished in a Starbucks or at home.

The NYT crosswords get more difficult as the days pass in a week. Monday is the simplest, and I can usually get through it in one sitting. Saturday might have you thinking you’ve had a stroke and your brain is not functioning correctly. Sunday’s is just big. It takes time. I usually skip it.

And I never google.

Most programmers are competitive. The copy I left in the breakroom would usually be completed by day’s end. Like flies to a lantern, they’d be drawn to it…