August 6, 2010 at 12:53 am
Interesting question! Well, I get my ideas when I'm not thinking of having an idea. Best place is in the morning under the shower. Then I'm in this state of not being asleep but also not fully awake. Other times I get ideas when I'm together with other people and talks becoming a bit silly and "abstract" (no alcohol involved!!). All over sudden there is this spark of an idea. Unfortunately non of the ideas were so brilliant that I could stop to be interested in SQL. 😀
August 6, 2010 at 1:32 am
That is a question I do not think about conciously but I guess the way I always start out is thinking that there must be a solution or at least a better way of doing things. So it is a matter of freeing your mind to find the solution and not allowing yourself to give up!
August 6, 2010 at 2:04 am
liebesiech (8/6/2010)
Interesting question! Well, I get my ideas when I'm not thinking of having an idea. Best place is in the morning under the shower. Then I'm in this state of not being asleep but also not fully awake. Other times I get ideas when I'm together with other people and talks becoming a bit silly and "abstract" (no alcohol involved!!). All over sudden there is this spark of an idea. Unfortunately non of the ideas were so brilliant that I could stop to be interested in SQL. 😀
I am another 'shower person' ; I thought it was just me!
Madame Artois
August 6, 2010 at 2:10 am
My best ideas come when I'm sat on the toilet :blush:
Normal solutions simply come to me as I work through a problem.
August 6, 2010 at 2:13 am
On the bike... loads of them... normally shortly after someone has tried to "share" my lane with me, or encouraged me to test my brakes and tyres! Possibly something to do with the adrenaline rush 🙂
August 6, 2010 at 3:19 am
I watched the movie twice in iMax screens, would watch it a 3rd time and eagerly waiting the blu-ray for it.
I think better ideas come when one has a broader knowledge and experience. I think this is why there is education, books, and all those things where one learns or uses the brain.
I think the more we read, analyze, discuss, think, all those tasks involving mental intelligence, the more we 'store' things in the mind. Then in the subconscious state of dreaming, these ideas and abstractions are joined in ways the real world or conscious state can't do.
I even fall asleep when working deeply in a problem, even when coding a program. It's like the ideas rotating in my mind slowly become a dream which makes me sleep. I often wake with the solution in mind.
There's a thread somewhere, sometime ago, they called it, 'The Zone' which is like being in a state of peak performance in a world of your own. I think it's a little like being in a dream state, too.
August 6, 2010 at 3:41 am
LOL, so there are two of us then
August 6, 2010 at 3:46 am
Yes, the movie is really good. But I got a bit confused towards the end. I really like the camerawork.
Most of us have mentioned that our best ideas come in the shower, toilet, in the morning after we wake up. I agree wholeheartedly to each one of you.
Even I think that the moment we wake up is the moment we are at our brillian best. This even happens when I'm stuck in a difficult situation in a Video game before I sleep. 😀
Other times, ideas come to me from the instances i have heard from other people or might have chanced upon while searching for some other problem.
August 6, 2010 at 4:19 am
This might sound strange to those who do not know who I am, but thinking about all my own creative inception (Exceptional) moments that I had over the time span of my mere existence, I would literally sleep over it. Just before I leave for home I ponder about the task to be done and formulate the raw essence of what need to be done. So then good night and somewhere during the night my brain kicks in overdrive and when I get to work it is just like copy and paste. And in the event I do not have that Inception spark during the day, well that’s where Day-dreaming works so well, as well. I cannot explain how or why it is like this, it just is.:w00t:
August 6, 2010 at 4:25 am
"LOL, so there are two of us then"
You should see my husband's face when he brings my morning coffee and there I am jibbering on about SQL Server agents, code etc. He is getting quite good at deciphering ..............
Madame Artois
August 6, 2010 at 4:34 am
One could almost shout SNAP! Likewise, somehow my wife only smiles and nods, even when I know she does not even have a cooking clue what I am talking about. Fascinating, but so sweet. Thanks for your reply.
August 6, 2010 at 4:46 am
I get my ideas from words. Words just trigger some sort of bizarre mental process in me that sparks my creative side. Whether I'm having / overhearing a conversation, listening to a song, watching a movie or reading a forum thread, sometimes the way something is phrased will just pop in my head. I'll cook it for a while and the result comes pouring out.
Usually, I'll get the result while I'm exercising, sleeping, or even showering. Basically, the moment I let my back brain take over, it does what my frontal lobes can't. @=)
August 6, 2010 at 6:03 am
Inception is a pretty visually cool movie - only took me three viewings though, to get it... Sure was easier with the Matrix and taking the blue or red pill...
But you suggest that we write code and then use best practices, etc etc... That sounds more like someone living in a dream inside a dream inside a dream. Much of the code I have seen written in my career is not in any vacuum - there are usually pressing issues and stuff needs to get done - and best practices are all well and good, but not when revenue or customer issues are pressing. How do we deal with that?
Its a very old technique I learned in the 70's when I was young Jedi coder - its called Code Reviews. Amazing how companies will hire two, three, twenty or thirty developers and then isolate each one of them. Every bit of production code that gets done around here goes through code reviews where peers look over each others code and make suggestions. We work truly as a group, combining brain power and allowed every developer to learn from their peers. Its a system thats quick, and highly effective - and you get the added bonus of "mass brain power" instead of an isolated developer trying to bang out code and then read the lengthy bibles of 'best practices'.
I have been amazed in the last 20 or so years how so few companies use this technique, preferring instead to let developers work in isolation and then expect them to deliver something 'blessed' by some collection of ideas someone in Redmond (or where ever) came up with.
Use what you have! If you have a staff of developers, use the staff, not just the developer. Its quick, its usually easy, and it turns out good code churned by a team of developers, instead of one developer trying to follow lengthy, perfect-world concepts that rarely apply in the go-go business world.
August 6, 2010 at 6:09 am
I'm not alone LOL. From reading all the replies l can relate most of them. Its good to see what l have read before that not actively thinking about a challenge its when the solution often comes.
For me the possible solutions have come, whilst cycling my daily commute, lying in bed, gardening, reading, cooking, getting coffee, sitting the in loo, or in other words doing some completely different.
One thing that has worked well is ask for help or just explaining the issue the person can be technical or non-technical. A few times the solution just appears :w00t: Amazing thing the human mind!
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