Getting into the Zone with Mark Seemann
While at the Norwegian Developers Conference in Oslo, Norway, Carl and Richard talk with Mark Seemann about his thinking around how developers 'get into the zone.' As Mark explains, this behavior isn't all that unusual - psychologists call it 'flow,' and it is a common state for athletes, musicians, writers and more. The conversation digs into the truth around flow, primarily that it doesn't guarantee productivity. Mark discusses techniques for getting into flow faster, so that you're less sensitive to interruption, and the conversation ultimately spins into thinking around how we can practice more effectively using flow and put in the hours it takes to become truly proficient in our area of focus. Throughout the conversation there are references to great books you should read - check the links!
Guests:
Mark Seemann
Mark Seemann helps programmers make code easier to maintain. His professional interests include functional programming, object-oriented development, software architecture, as well as software development in general. Apart from writing a book about Dependency Injection he has also created several Pluralsight courses, videos for Clean Coders, and written numerous articles and blog posts about programming. He's an independent consultant, author, and conference speaker. He lives in Copenhagen, Denmark
Links:
- WPF Scaling Blog Post http://inchoatethoughts.com/scaling-your-user-interface-in-a-wpf-application
- Mark's Blog http://blog.ploeh.dk/
- Myth of Multitasking http://freakonomics.com/2010/11/02/the-myth-of-multitasking/
- Talent is Overrated http://www.geoffcolvin.com/books/talent-is-overrated-by-geoff-colvin/
- Outliers http://gladwell.com/outliers/
- So Good They Can't Ignore You http://calnewport.com/books/so-good/
- Mark's Zone Out, Check In Talk at NDC http://vimeo.com/97419151
- Music to Code By http://mtcb.pwop.com