In the past few weeks I've been under a very stressful series of deadlines and, as we have all probably experienced in these situations, plenty of issues crop up: bugs, personality differences, physical health challenges, sleep deprivation, prior commitments, and the usual distractions. This all can create even greater stress, which can in turn contribute to more errors and many last-minute solutions.

What I noticed first about all of this is that, no matter how well I understand a particular subject, no matter how good my trouble-shooting skills may be, often the solution comes in a flurry of tests as a sort of magical mistake, or an act of grace. Through no or little fault of my own, the answer is "stumbled" upon.

This got me to thinking about various factors, most importantly stress and one's REACTION to it. How consistently can you maintain a calm and collected demeanor while management and team-members cry for resources, solutions, and answers? How well are you able to stay focused on debugging or coding the top issue when severe back pain, the flu, or a malfunctioning air-conditioning system provide major distractions? Personally, I have found this to be one of the top lessons in my life: to remain calm in the eye of the storm ... without damaging bodily health or interpersonal relationships (read: don't ignore yourself, the boss, or the family). I have certainly not perfected this lesson, but I am constantly reminded of it.

But even if you set aside all of the distractions, all of the competing priorities, all of the stress-causing pain and noise ... even if you have a quiet, calm environment within which to work ... with the looming shadow of a deadline, it does not seem to matter how much careful thought is given, how many clever tests are run, or how much you study the perldocs, it almost always seems that the answer arrives from some last minute suspicion, or even an unconscious change (read: intuition or clumsy mistake).

This may not be the way for many of you. Perhaps I am even in the minority, or simply too junior of a Perl programmer to be above seemingly random influences. Or maybe it is simply the first sign of senility. But I wonder how many others of you have had, or continue to have, this sort of experience?

Om tat sat. This meditation is finished.

Chris Carden

"When meditation is here, where am I? When I am here, where is meditation?"
-- Shri Shibendu Lahiri, great-grandson of Lahiri Mahasaya, in a talk at Song of the Morning, ca. 1993

In reply to Problem-solving Under Pressure: Noting the Proportion of Knowledge, Skill, and Chance by ccarden

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