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Saturday Musings - I'm Exhausted and Loving It!
Have you ever worked so hard that you literally fall asleep at the keyboard? Well, that was me this past week. In the wee hours of the morning I awoke to the uncomfortable feeling of the “A” key pressed into my cheek. So what spurred me into this fanatical desire to work myself into a stupor?
It all began with an idea. Ideas are very dangerous things and normally should be avoided at all costs but in my case I made the mistake of letting my idea germinate. I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I took the next step in my journey into oblivion….I picked up a pen and sketched on a piece of paper how the idea could theoretically be built.
The problem with this stage is the idea was really beginning to take shape. This of course made my singular focus even worse as it became an all-consuming fixation of seeing it come into reality. In some-ways it reminded me of Victor Frankenstein prior to throwing the switch to seeing his creation come to life.
I’ve said this to the ParkLogic tech-team and I’ll write it here. There’s nothing more dangerous than a person (ie. me) with some rusty old tools, a plan, and a vision. So I dusted off my programming skills and got to the work of breathing some life into my idea.
Like any great undertaking everything hinges on the strength of the foundations…..but they are so boring to build. You spend ages mixing the programming cement, belting together functions and working out the overall architecture. The result is more of a Picasso looking house with all of the bits seemingly in the wrong spot.
For me I, I made the fatal mistake of showing off my strange edifice to Roselyn (my wife) so she could fully appreciate the nuances and clever little bits that I’d built. After being somewhat polite she asked a really dumb but however smart question, “And this does what?”
After being somewhat flummoxed with the response towards my brilliance I ushered her out of my study with the promise of a nice cup of tea. I then returned with renewed fervour as I moved the programming bedrooms out of the garage, attached them to the hallway and made sure the toilet flushed downwards rather than upwards. All really important details that I’d neglected to finalise.
This is when I entered that state of being that many programmers only know as “the zone”. This is a point where you have a singular and intense of focus that can only be described as astonishing. The previous chaos of bits and bytes suddenly seemed to gain a sense of order as I plied my herding skills to the code. I glanced at the clock and casually noticed it was 4am…..how time fly’s when you’re in the zone.
I dragged myself away from my desk, climbed into bed and was asleep in about 3 seconds to the comforting feeling of dancing HTML and PHP code in my head. A few hours later I was back working on my regular tasks and at the end of the day I resumed my vision. Things were really beginning to take shape and I had not just a home but a castle!
So it’s now the end of the week and I’m thoroughly exhausted…..but what a week’s it’s been! For those of you that have any programming experience you’ll fully appreciate the euphoric bliss I’m talking about. It’s a wonderful feeling seeing something come into being that wasn’t there before. It’s an act of creation, built from a vision and powered by passion.
I honestly wish that I could show to you what I built…..but that is for another day. Right now I really to reintroduce myself to Roselyn, and then get some sleep that doesn’t involve a keyboard.
Have a great weekend!
Comments
This is all too familiar! Personally my favorite is when I look at something I've built and all I can think to say is - how the hell did I do that?!!?
When you are truly in the zone, your subconscious just takes over and you really don't even know what exactly you're coding or if it will work or how, but you just "go with the flow" and let it come out. The results are more often than not, nothing short of miraculous and at least in my experience, often somehow function far beyond the skills you thought you had. Love that feeling!
Gotta love "the zone".
How is this possible? For me I cannot sleep for at least 3 hours as my mind is still running miles per minute which is always a bummer if I've gone until 3am before stopping.
Some people can "switch off" faster than others. Sounds like I'm more like you... when my brain is running that fast, it's extremely hard to switch it off! Unless I'm also physically drained. For me, socializing is particularly exhausting and if I've spent all day running around visiting/dealing with people, I'll be bone-weary and out like a light. But if I'm doing mental, creative work... VERY challenging to drift off! Helps to work for yourself and not have to keep a specific schedule. These days I find http://www.brain.fm helps hugely when I need help getting to sleep, as well as helping me get into the zone in the first place.
Over the years I've just learned how to turn my brain off. I think that it must be something to do with the amount of travelling I do. I end up catching sleep anywhere and everywhere I can.....so it's rare I can't sleep.