"Most importantly, the problem has to be interesting to me. I cant enter The Zone unless I truly am determined to solve the problem. Sometimes even boring problems can be made interesting once you spend a couple hours tackling them, but typically youll get better results if the problem is genuinely interesting. (This is why the scratch-the-itch motivation of free software works so well.) I dont hack on coffee; I hack on diet coke. Lots of it. My musical mood changes from hour to hour, so I dont ordinarily set up playlists for more than 45-75 minutes, but I do normally listen to music the whole time Im in the zone. Agreed: big monitor and many terminal windows are a must. If you cant have at least 6 terms on screen at once, youll get distracted by toggling between virtual desktops. Sometimes I have up to 12 windows on screen. You just need a fast computer. No one wants to wait long for compiling simple changes. Lighting for me has to be dim, but not dark. I prefer a single, tungsten 60W bulb with a lamp shade on my desk. It provides a nice, cozy warm light and offsets the light from my monitor to prevent eye strain. Everyone has certain things they do when theyre thinking about a solution to a particular tough problem (or sub-problem). Maybe you lie down for a few minutes; maybe you pace around the room; maybe you go to the gym and work out. Me? I take a long, hot shower. This yields very excellent results for me. And I have come up with some pretty damn clever solutions under the nearly-scaulding hot water. :)"
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/22/1638256&mode=thread&tid=156
