I am completely an environmental worker. The more I am in my element, the better I work. I remember seeing rows of desks jammed next to each other and pressed across from each other during the Y2K days or during a big ERP project. Laptops and cords are strewn across conference tables, with developers and analysts all crammed into chairs of all sorts, trying to work. Butts in chairs and the pressure from on-high to get it done and have it work at least long enough to pass the user acceptance test and promote it further. Crack the whip and cut the code.

Technical debt by the barrel full and just do and do not ask questions.

If you are not in that world, you can do yourself a favor. Listen up, I have a secret for you. While work is a four-letter word, the environment you work in can be better. Over the last who knows how many years the developers have revolted, and a quiet revolution has taken place. The inmates are running the asylum. You can have the things that you enjoy and help you do the work and get things done with creativity, innovation, on time, and to spec. If I may also be candid, you can also ask questions. It is also ok to get clarification and more insight.

So do yourself a favor. Going back to my opening sentence, I stated that I am an environmental programmer. My environment includes many different things. Some big and some small. Some I bring with me to work, some I request from my employer, and some I create while I work. The quiet revolution in which the development inmates took over the castle has made all this possible.

Software development in today’s world is a constant world of solving difficult problems and delivering accuracy on time on a budget of times and baselines. Not everyone can do this work. Even fewer can survive a career doing it. But the key is to know how to make your environment productive and creative and when needed, soothing and mindful.

So do yourself a favor. It is OK.

Here are some of my things…

  • I thrive on using mechanical keyboards. My home board is a Corsair. My work board is a Steel Series Apex 7. Saving my hands and typing on a board allows me to fly typing while giving that subtle click and response is worth it. I spent my own cash on my work board as a BYOD thing. Totally worth it.
  • Good monitors. I do not stare at CLI or IBMi green screens all day. I use IDE’s and modern tools. Lots of content on the screens. For a few hundred bucks you can go from average monitors to nice 4k monitors. It does not hurt to ask for an upgrade if possible.
  • Themes for your IDE. I really like the GitHub themes for VS Code. Most IDE’s have themes that you can try or customize. You live in these worlds so do not be afraid to arrange the furniture to help you feel more at home.
  • Dark Mode. Come to the dark side. Or it would be better to update the different software that you use between dark and light. Enjoy the contrast and boost in concentration you can achieve to enable Jedi-level focus when working on different tasks. Code in the dark, SQL in the light, Office in the middle, but of course have Teams in the dark.
  • Music or Podcasts: Offices can be noisy and sometimes I want to zone into my work. My Air pods are my go-to when I need to tune out the outside and think on the inside. Often I do not even have music or a podcast on, just silence or noise cancelation.

So, do yourself a favor…