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Anyone? If I'm working on something that's complicated or frustrating I tend to pull at my left earlobe. Now it's a little stretched and visibly larger than the other one. I'm thinking about getting one of those plastic cones you put on dogs to stop them licking their stitches.
Not for that activity, no, but I'm prone to rock back and forth out of the blue like an autistic person, or something.
I do have a tendency to say "Hmm!" quite a lot. And when others are around, this is often met with a quizzical "What?" in response, which can be sort of annoying when you're trying to concentrate. :p
I think they are all involuntary but normal body language to convey stress. [I scratch my head a lot when something is frustrating me while coding].
I tend to stick my tongue out when I concentrate. I don't think I do that while coding, though.
Heh, me too. I tend to rock when I try to concentrate, coding requires me to type (often at a decent pace), which requires me sit still, well, somewhat still anyway.Quote:
Not for that activity, no, but I'm prone to rock back and forth out of the blue like an autistic person, or something.
I used to have a wooden chair to sit in (don't get me wrong, the seat had a butt shape carved in it, it was quite confortable for a wooded chair), but rocking it back on 2 legs and then forward again put to much stress on it, you could hear it creak and sometimes a faint crack (it was older), I would've eventually broken it.
But now I have a real office chair, so no more than a little squeaking occures. :)
I just crack my knuckles and growl.
Usually some frustrated phrases, like "are you kidding me?", esp. when reading MSDN...
I turn the air blue regularly: "No way. NO WAY! This is such bulls**t! How? Why? This is f****** ridiculous! Oh...come...ON! Are you trying to tell me tha.....oh wait, there it is. Ha ha....sorry everyone!"Quote:
Originally Posted by Cactus_Hugger
Stop trying to swear on the boards.
1. You are not good at it.
2. It's against the forum guidelines.
Define "good at it"?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bubba
Effectiously using the words.Quote:
Define "good at it"?
Both words you use, don't hardly effect the severity of the sentence, near as much as those words can. Soo... you're not good at.
Oh come on now guys. It wasn't really done in bad taste, and besides...it was quite funny, actually. :p
Jeez, someone's been listening to too much NPR! It was meant to be an accurate statement of fact, not a work of creative literature. I half-swore and I'm sorry *sniff*! But let's not use this whole dreadful incident as excuse to put our pomp hats on now :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Yarin
They can't swear on NPR either. $250 000 fine if you swear on American radio!Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharke
But it's okay, Sharke. I'm guessing you were actually born in NYC...the natives here can't swear for ......... They are so polite it's almost funny; meanwhile all these rich out of state types just move in and take all their ......... It's ........in' sad dude. Then they get a whee bit miffed and think it's a ........in' riot or some .........
I tap my feet. It must be really annoying for the guy next to me, because I keep my keys in the pocket of the same leg, and I'm pretty sure they jingle. Hard to tell - I always have headphones in.
I, er, smell my fingertips a lot. :o
OK if we're going to cross that line then I sometimes shake dandruff over my keyboard and have to get the compressed air out.Quote:
Originally Posted by SMurf
TMI.
>> TMI
Way.
It's hard to explain. I take the heel of my thumb, grasp it between the thumb and middle finger of the other hand, and roll it back and forth. I do this enough that it leaves a callus on my hand, which I have to trim off using nail clippers.
Yes, it's really weird.
>> I do this enough that it leaves a callus on my hand, which I have to trim off using nail clippers.
That's...pretty unusual. :D Have you always done this, or is it just programming induced?
I've always done it. As a child I had several nervous behaviors (not sure if they'd qualify as "tics" or not, although a neurologist did look at me). They've all passed except for this one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sebastiani
I think it's psychological, not neurological. I remember as a young kid, holding my father's hand and squeezing his thumb in exactly the same way. He got annoyed by it, told me not to do it anymore, and so I started doing it to my own thumb. That's my theory, anyway.
For a while I tried substituting something else for it, like squeezing a ball of putty. Didn't really work.
I guess this isn't really a "bodily habit", but I do require a number of small, totemic stuffed animals around me while programming. They give me advice and seem to absorb my occasional frustrations. I always know I have lost perspective when my communication with my totemic idols breaks down.
I may not be alone in this; I was at a "web 2.0" convention last year and the most popular piece of swag (like, people were lining up and demanding to know where they came from) was a soft monkey with a cape and arms with slingshot bands inside, so you could pull the arms and fire the monkey into the air. There's some kind of kinetic noise maker inside connected to the slingshot bands, so while flying he makes a kind of "ooohh nnnooo!" squeak
Beyond that I'm not really religious but I also have a statue of Kali, mounted on a tiger, that I found. She is sort of an ancient, comforting presence with eight arms and a flaming sword.
Nail biting. Smokers think they got it bad, but they definitly don't.
>> I remember as a young kid, holding my father's hand and squeezing his thumb in exactly the same way. He got annoyed by it, told me not to do it anymore, and so I started doing it to my own thumb. That's my theory, anyway.
That makes sense. We have a family friend whose son would do that to his fathers ears. As it turns out, the father explained to us, it was probably because he used to caress his sons ears when he was a toddler!
Beats rocking back and forth in your chair like a mad man, I guess. :p
I remember reading a story about a Berkeley (MIT? Somewhere else?) computer science tutor who worked in the student lab. When a student would come to him with a question, he'd pull out an old Teddy bear. "Ask the bear first," he'd say, and would not help with the student's question until the student had done so.Quote:
Originally Posted by MK27
9 out of 10 times (or something like that), the student would be enlightened simply by the act of explaining the problem to somebody, even if that somebody was an inanimate object.
I read that a long time ago, and took it to heart. You sure feel stupid interrupting somebody to ask a question, only to arrive at the answer yourself before they even get a chance to say anything.
That's a pretty funny story, but it's absolutely true. That principle should be taught in schools, come to think of it.
I forget to blink
I grind my teeth, frown, growl, rub my forehead, squint and lean towards the monitor.
Sometimes I take off my clothes, paint my body, and make offerings of fruit, animal furs and stone flints to the almighty Debugger!
I use my father instead of a stuffed animal, but the effect is pretty much the same.Quote:
9 out of 10 times (or something like that), the student would be enlightened simply by the act of explaining the problem to somebody, even if that somebody was an inanimate object.
Strictly, you don't really need anyone else - just yourself. Vocalizing a problem or new knowledge out loud enhances the thought process. If I'm reading a tutorial about something new I find that if I read it out loud to myself then I both understand and remember it better. If I'm stuck on a problem I am more likely to come to an answer if I talk myself through it out loud. The auditory part of your brain is intimately linked to other parts of the brain in ways that are unique to that sense. I think hearing something out loud provokes more parts of the brain to work together than simply reading or thinking quietly.Quote:
Originally Posted by CornedBee
I recently read the book "This is Your Brain on Music" by Daniel J. Levitin and it made me realize just how central the auditory sense is to the way our brains work. Although deaf people probably compensate for the lack of hearing in other ways. The brain is extremely adaptable.
I also talk to myself about new revelations I've made :D, usually as if though there's someone else in the room with me. Never to a stuffed animal.
I've been told before that autistic people are smarter than most, but that their situation makes it nearly impossible for others to notice.
I didn't start talking until I was 4, which, according to some article, where ever, that it's a sign of autisim; but as it turns out, I'm fine. (almost, fine ;))
Maybe nerds, suffer from a hint of autisim, resulting in the increased 'smartness' and decreased social skills?
Just thinking out loud again.
>> I also talk to myself about new revelations I've made , usually as if though there's someone else in the room with me.
I suspect a lot of people do but don't admit it. ;) But, yeah, I do it quite a lot (always have).
When I was 5 or so my parents took me to a specialist because I rarely spoke (I could, I just didn't), and he told them I was just "extremely introverted" (in fact, my Grandma use to call me "Little Old Man" because I frowned so much and kept to myself :D). I did finally come out of my shell, but it wasn't until I was a teenager. I don't think it's a sign of intelligence though, necessarily. It's just a mark of a person's nature, I guess.
I think in second person. Not commands but other things.
You think that's something. When I was a kid around 6 or 7 or so I used to host my own imaginary talk show when sitting on the can - titled, curiously enough, "Toilet Talk." Not a word of a lie. I think I went through a REAL strange period at this age - I also went through a phase of not being able to throw out trash because I felt sorry for it. I had a drawer full of orange peel and banana skins.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yarin
I know exactly how you feel. I do that exact same thing (phrase and all) for the very same reasons :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Cactus_Hugger