Hacking Mode

All you hackers out there that can actually hack, I got a question for ya! When you sit down, and are about to start hacking away at whatever, what gets you in and keeps you in the “hacking mode”? You know that place you get into where you have full concentration on the task before you and nothing can get in the way of you and the final outcome.........

Let me give you a personal example. When I sit back at my butt wrenching computer chair and am about to start kickin’ computer ass, I require a few things… here’s my list:

1. A GIANT cup of hot tea. I know when many people picture hackers wacking away at their keyboards, they picture them with piles of soda cans or some other type of sugary bubble filled drink. Not me. Instead of digesting that heart killin’ crap, I stick with the old fashioned cup of freshly steeped tea. Green, White, Black, Oolong… you name it, I digest it.

2. Loud music. Depending on my mood I go with a playlist of techno or rap. I like to mix it up with some softer techno like ATB, some harder heavy beated techno like Benny Benassi and some fast-paced get-out-of-my-chair-and-shake-my-booty techno like…. well theres to many good ones to single out a few. When I’m in the rap mood, I like some older Eminem and related, and some old-school rap like Biggie Smalls. “I love it when you call me Big Poppa!” … but most of the time I stick with the techno. If you hate techno.. i hate you. Not really…

3. A clear desk. I need to have my desk to be everything-free… somehow I relate a clear desk with a clear mind and can think much better. It also bothers me… which is funny because its still always a complete mess, so I guess it doesn’t bother me enough. Hmm…

4. Full stomach. I can’t work on an empty stomach. Sometimes when you start without planning, you forget you are hungry so it’s no big deal. But if I sit down and plan to do some hacking, then I must have a full stomach. The bad part about this is that it doesn’t mix well with the tea part. As many of you may know, tea is a pretty good laxitive, so it doesn’t help me much when it causes me to have to take an immediate shit every thirty minutes… killing my “hacker mojo” a.k.a, concentration.

That’s it for me. What gets you in the mode? Tell us in the comments or I’ll come after you after I’ve eaten a full meal and had a giant cup of tea… you don’t want that. Trust me.