今日推荐开源项目：《像素动图 pixel-art-react》
今日推荐英文原文：《Do Happy Software Developers Write Better Code?》
今日推荐开源项目：《像素动图 pixel-art-react》传送门：GitHub链接
推荐理由：这个项目可以让你轻松的创作出像素画 gif。只需要自己绘制关键帧，它就能给你一个由 CSS 代码组成的 gif。对于喜欢在页面上摆上各种各样像素画的人来说，这个项目能轻松实现他们各种各样的创意；当然了，用来制作一些生草的沙雕 gif 也一样合适。
今日推荐英文原文：《Do Happy Software Developers Write Better Code?》作者：Małgorzata Kuś
原文链接：https://medium.com/better-programming/do-happy-software-developers-write-better-code-5eee72b4b1c2
推荐理由：情绪与编程效率的关系
Do Happy Software Developers Write Better Code?
Does being happy make you better at coding or does coding make you happier?
TL;DR
It’s complicated, but there does seem to be some evidence that the more negative a person feels, the better their problem-solving performance is. Feeling bad, however, has a detrimental effect on productivity and motivation, while good emotions push you forward and make you slightly more creative. Way to go? Flow and more research.Human Factors
Let’s dig into more details.The room is dim and silent. The person sitting at the desk is only visible because of the faint light given off by a couple of large screens. Half-empty mugs are uninterested witnesses of the creative process. Behold—a programmer at work.
However magical feats of software programming may seem, especially to a layperson’s eye, programming, just like creative writing, playing chess, or painting, is yet another complex cognitive activity that can be studied by psychology. And there are indeed people who focus their work on what is called human factors in software development: moods, emotions, preferences, and their effects on the quality of devs’ work.
So what is software engineering to a psychologist? A complex skill that requires two different capabilities: creativity and analytical problem-solving. To be successful and write great code, programmers need to be able both to generate many good ideas and to get to the point—find the solution, or at least one that works.
So there we have it: Being creative and solving complex problems fast and for good is what will make you a great developer. But are those qualities stable over time? What may improve the results and what has the potential to damage them? Or, as one could ask, do happy cows give more milk? Or are angry programmers the best programmers?
Effects of Emotional States
The connection between being happy, angry, or sad (formally speaking: affective states) to one’s ability to solve problems or come up with good ideas has been studied multiple times. It seems reasonably important for workforce performance.Unfortunately, the results of studies and large metanalysis are quite unclear. Some studies do find that feeling negative emotions can be linked to improved analytical performance. Others, on the other hand, don’t see that link whatsoever. There is research indicating that happiness correlates positively with creativity on specific tasks. But that’s the outside world. Let’s get back to our dim room and a hooded figure bent over a keyboard.
I looked into two studies that focus on these aspects of human performance in strict relation to software development. Indeed, a multinational study group found out (based on a relatively small group of CS students) that those programmers who reported feeling more positive emotions were better at generating more ideas and that those ideas tended to be of better quality. In other words, if you’re stuck and feeling low on ideas, watching a happy cat video may not hurt your performance, but provided it makes you happier, it may even improve it. If that’s not useful science, I don’t know what is 😉
On the other hand, the same study found evidence that negative affect can foster critical and analytical thinking. Those who are feeling blue tend to question ideas and concepts more, doubt the existing solution, and aim straight for the answer. Could pissing off your colleagues every once in a while be good for the company?
Before we run away to throw things to annoy our coworkers, coding happily in the peace of their open spaces, let’s see another perspective. A differently framed study by the same authors has enumerated many unfavourable effects of negative affect in developers. This time asking them to make their own assessments. So whenever devs are feeling bad at work, they are also affected by:
- Mental unease or disorder: As in any other human, being subject to negative feelings of panic, self-doubt, and frustration can result in mid- or long-term mental health hazards. We don’t wish that on anybody.
- Low motivation: Resulting in opting out from new opportunities, passing up on ideas, working slower or not taking up new tasks.
- Work withdrawal: Avoiding the task in question, taking on other assignments that appear easier or, when taken to the extreme, leaving the company.
- Low productivity: Resulting in delays in delivering results.
- Decreased adherence to the process: Cutting corners to just get things done and forget about it. Not checking whether the solution works as intended, not testing, not documenting, you name it. Just shipping the bloody thing and moving on.
- Low-quality code: That’s not surprising when you look above.
Because when you look at those who reported positive affect, they also reported opposite tendencies:
- High cognitive performance: I can do it all! Easy.
- High motivation: And willpower to continue coding.
- Higher work engagement and perseverance.
- Higher creativity (and we remember that it’s particularly important).
- More strict adherence to processes.
- Higher productivity and improved workflow.
It Touches Artists and Programmers Alike
Is happiness even something we should strive for at work? How would we define it, and what emotions would we expect to feel? Even those people who report being content with their job don’t usually mean they spend their whole days giggling, drinking coffee, and playing ping-pong. There is something else that does the trick. And it works also for seemingly different lines of work.It’s already anecdotal how programmers need their peace and quiet to really get into the zone. But some time ago, and far away from a tech open space, a Hungarian psychologist noticed how artists get drawn into their work and lose track of time and space. He started researching it and later published a theory about what is now the holy grail of happiness at work: a state of flow.
Flow is a self-reported state of immersion and focus, resulting from performing complex tasks where the difficulty matches our abilities and challenges are welcome. To experience it, you need to be proficient at what you’re doing and work on a problem that is just the right amount of challenging. What happens then is not pure joy because those in the state of flow are so focused on the job they don’t experience many personal emotions. They are “out there,” immersed in the task and their own competence.
As we know from the life-long research of M. Csikszentmihalyi, people in the state of flow are indeed as happy as it is possible at work. But that is not all and by far not the only benefit. Research findings by a Harvard professor, Teresa Amabile, showed the positive impact of this state of mind: higher levels of productivity, creativity, and happiness last longer than the experience itself. Reaching the state of flow improved those qualities for research subjects for up to three days.
The effects of the state of flow are almost like a magical potion that, when drunk once, keeps you going for longer than a full weekend. The potion is just chemicals in your brain, brought to life by achieving a state when your action and awareness are merged, your attention is full, and the flow of time becomes irrelevant.
So, are those who are happier better at coding than the sad and angry ones? It’s hard to tell. We still don’t know enough about things that improve coding performance, and it could be useful to dig deeper. But those who continue to get better at writing code and are able to get in the zone are truly happy while doing so, and the effects on their creativity and well-being are long-lasting.
Good for you, happy programmers!
Sources
What happens when software developers are (un)happy, Daniel Graziotina, Fabian Fagerholmb, Xiaofeng Wangd, Pekka Abrahamssonhttps://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0164121218300323?token=A8AB02130AFC82E93BD0CF114EFC8EB8390C11C931172656648485E8F00A211AC80DE75655197416BC5DDB8CAB9D6269Happy software developers solve problems better, psychological measurements in empirical software engineering; Daniel Graziotin, Xiaofeng Wang, Pekka Abrahamssonhttps://peerj.com/articles/289/
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