Johntron

All programmers tend to hit a brick wall. This is hard to describe to people that haven’t experienced it first-hand, but I personally feel that the primary cause of this is boredom. Passion is a very powerful force, especially when paired with something as technical as programming. In my experience, some programmers will stick around at the same job and become complacent, but the really good developers just leave in search of something that appeals to their interests. Because of this, it’s important to nurture a developers private interests. It is important to realize that an individual’s interests tend to change, and there’s not a lot that can be done to prevent this, but here are a few suggestions that I think might help:

* Stay fresh: Allocate a certain amount of time each week for the developer to do whatever he wants, as long as it is loosely job-related. Off the clock, most developers enjoy reading tech news, scouring blogs, participating in online discussions, learning new technologies, and other techy things.

* Get a library card: Come up with a budget for developers to spend on reading material. This can be magazines, books, online subscriptions to anything related to technology, business, or any other form of “work-related” material. I’m sure every developer out there is familiar with the O’Reilly books and their online subscription.

* Start a blog: Let developers create, maintain, and improve on their own blog. Let them publish articles, create blog plugins, and tweak the design of their own personal blog. To some, this may pose a threat to intellectual property. Wordpress.org

* Find some music: Most developers I know like to listen to music while they work. Music is invigorating, and can help make tedious, mind-numbing work less painful. A budget for buying music could improve productivity and creativity. iTunes gift cards, or a subscription to some online music service could go a long way. Pandora.com is nice, and so is the Hype Machine (which happens to be free).

* Improve the workspace: Personally, I feel most people are oblivious to the negative effects of a dull workspace. I don’t know how anyone can expect to work in a place that is . . . crappy. Yuck. For this I suggest a budget for improving the workspace — buying thinks to put on the desk, hang on the wall, comfortable furniture, paint, etc. I’d imagine most programmers don’t think about this, but they’d definitely appreciate some work in this area.

* Insulation: I like describing programming as playing a really long game of chess. If a work environment is polluted with distractions, it’s like someone punching you in the face each time you’re about to move a chess piece. A private office, or at least a good pair of headphones can help here.

So there’s my recommendations.