tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677687.post5756442161719967292..comments2024-03-27T15:13:24.764-04:00Comments on Computer Science Teacher: The Myth of The All-nighterAlfred Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05575057876858763822noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677687.post-53100836207719375432012-11-19T04:35:10.387-05:002012-11-19T04:35:10.387-05:00Your discussion of the all-nighter assumes it'...Your discussion of the all-nighter assumes it's happening the night before a deadline. In those cases, I agree it could usually be avoided with better planning.<br /><br />But... I also do all-nighters at other times, usually because I'm working on complicated problems and I need long UNINTERRUPTED blocks of time to think clearly. And if your office is like mine, you know it can be hard to get more than 10-15 minutes of continuous thinking time during the work day, without phone calls, support issues, people stopping by to ask questions or socialize, all of which prevent you from giving any deep thought to your work.<br /><br />So from time to time -- maybe a handful of nights a year -- I actually CHOOSE to do an all-nighter, just to get several hours of quiet and solitude to come up with a good design to a difficult problem.<br />Charley Williamsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677687.post-7340790483456795042012-11-16T01:27:49.441-05:002012-11-16T01:27:49.441-05:00But it also shows that in a pinch, you can bust it...But it also shows that in a pinch, you can bust it and finish the job. Proud of my all nighters, they helped define me, more glad I do not do them anymore.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18677687.post-61580005414430662732012-11-10T21:40:42.270-05:002012-11-10T21:40:42.270-05:00Ah, memories ... The job interview where a former ...Ah, memories ... The job interview where a former colleague warned me: "This looks like a beanbag chair in my cube, but it's not. It's a bed. I thought you might want to know that." The story he told me later about one programmer there who pulled so many all-nighters that he ended up in the hospital hallucinating. The architect who pulled an unnecessary all-nighter and had to be sent home after team members complained he was checking in bad code. He was genuinely surprised to be told that he was breaking rather than fixing things.<br /><br />As much as any other creative problem-solver, I love that feeling of flow when I'm deeply engrossed in my work and lose all awareness of time. The issue here is more the tech culture that often places higher value on the emergency fire-fighters than on the ones who (equally heroically, in my book) prevent fires from starting. I think you're right on the money.<br />BJ Wishinskyhttp://about.me/bjwishinskynoreply@blogger.com