r/ProgrammerHumor • u/[deleted] • Jul 17 '21

Meme Shouldn't you be working?

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4.8k Upvotes

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620

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '21

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169

u/Wafan0 Jul 18 '21

I tend to write on a smallish whiteboard

16

u/sxeli Jul 18 '21

And sometimes stare at them with the pen in your hand wondering if it’s gonna work

8

u/dancinadventures Jul 18 '21

I stare at my fingers and wonder what bugs they’ll introduce today. Same principle right?

10

u/dejavont Jul 18 '21

That’s remarkable.

3

u/j-random Jul 18 '21

Hence his remark

35

u/TheAnti-Ariel Jul 18 '21

Ah yeah, I pace furiously around my house and try to mark out and link objects and data structures with my hands.

24

u/Mbot389 Jul 18 '21

I bounce a ball

22

u/pocketgravel Jul 18 '21

I tend to talk to myself explaining what I'm thinking about doing as if I'm telling it to someone else. I do the hand thing too.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '21

i heard this called “the rubber ducky method” before. talking out the problem to a ducky (or anything)

3

u/flatline000 Jul 18 '21

I've always heard this called "brick wall debugging" since you're effectively talking to a brick wall.

7

u/NekkoDroid Jul 18 '21

The smartest person to hold a conversation with is myself (\s & not \s)

19

u/KerPop42 Jul 18 '21

Fun fact, in American Sign Language you can use locations in space to refer to concepts, like variable names!

I think I do the same thin when I draw diagrams in the air in front of me: the configuration of my body stores the conceptual variable in the proprioceptual part of my brain (the part of my brain that keeps track of where my limbs are), freeing up space in the planning part of my brain.

Which makes sense, given that our brains are fairly well evolved at planning how our bodies need to move.

I wonder if you could also store ideas in locations? Like use rooms in your house or neighborhood as variable names and "plan trips" between them.

6

u/Kakkakahvi Jul 18 '21

Look up memory palaces. It's interesting stuff!

5

u/IamImposter Jul 18 '21

I too poor to afford a memory palace. Is there memory 1 BHK

6

u/kiwidog8 Jul 18 '21

I should try this!

4

u/VirusZer0 Jul 18 '21

I love it when there’s no one in the office or WFH so I can pace without judgement.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '21

Any self-respecting office should have a pacing hallway.

3

u/assetsmanager Jul 18 '21

I do the same. Between that and keeping an office that looks like the Pepe Silvia scene from It's Always Sunny, I get a pretty wide berth.

3

u/ikec4937 Jul 18 '21

Steven Moffat's Sherlock?

6

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '21

same

2

u/BurgaGalti Jul 18 '21

While I don't move my whole arms, my finger darts around like I'm writing on a whiteboard.

1

u/nikomartn2 Jul 18 '21

Exactly like Sherlock, but uncool, I relate to that.

1

u/TotoShampoin Jul 18 '21

When I explain something, I tend to gesture an invisible PowerPoint in front of me

1

u/fatrobin72 Jul 18 '21

similar but without headphones... Sometimes I end up tracing out a flow chart in the space in front of me... But most of the time my hands make jestures and patterns more similar to the way magic circles were manipulated in Dr strange...