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That is part of the reason I deliberately take a five or ten minute break from development pretty much every hour. Doing something unrelated to the task at hand helps to focus me on the essentials of the task, rather than the details of the problem I was trying to solve. I often find that when I pick it up again, I have a clearer view of what I am trying to do, and can work a lot more effectively.
I know it sounds odd, but not doing my job all the time makes me better, and more efficient at doing my job! 
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
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This is very common and integral to how brain works. Brain does lot of its work in dream/sub-conscious state. Sometimes it is in an actual dream you can remember and sometimes you see that you know the solution to a problem as soon as you wake up from sleep/nap.
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Yes at times I have that feeling too. I cannot quite describe it how it happens but at times the problem that I try to solve is too complex and cannot find a way around after trying several ways and often when all I wanted to do was give up on it and magially in my dreams I figur out how to solve it. That feeling is really magical.
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Math is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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Sometimes at wakeup I forgot part of the solution, or at least I'm sure I've figured out some problems that can arise with the dreamed solution, but I cant remember them..
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My wife claims that I elbowed her in the ribs at 2am and said "Give me the CRO."
I was fast asleep at the time.
In the morning, I had to explain that it must have been CRO (oscilloscope) not anything else she might have imagined.  
Peter
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Once I had a persistent sore throat and I dreamt that I was delving into the code of my mind to see if there was perhaps something wrong with the 'IsThroatSore()' interface function rather than the actual 'Throat' object.
I was investigating a way to add more interface functions to more accurately diagnose the source of the problem but I woke up before I had finished 
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An Alternate Interpretation involves one being awake and dreaming they were coding in the context that they wish they were able to code.
(what a cranky way for me to start the week)
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I'm actually a bit surprised, now that I think about it I don't think I ever have. Which is odd, pretty much any other regular activity has made its way into my dreams, including using a computer to browse the web, but never programming. And on top of that my dreams are generally heavily influenced by things I've done/seen/etc. in the past 24-48 hours... 
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I dream code so much that I keep pen and paper handy so that when I awaken I can record the results.
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And I thought I was the only one. On high-stress projects I dream about possible solutions so much that often I wake up screaming "yes, solved it". After which I reach for my pen and paper on the night stand.
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Sometimes I get to see hex on the walls after working on a core dump but I do not sleep until a problem is solved
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I have had to deal with cleaning up others' code that must have been written while they were dreaming.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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In my dreams the computer is usually behaving erradically. The debug cursor is jumping around or the screen is going black at random. Sometimes it may even talk to me (via console).
And that helps me to figure out that I'm dreaming and I enter lucid dream 
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I have actually solved problems in the dream, woke up and rushed to my computer to implement same I thank God for His mercy.
Isaac Anietye Inyang
Ansyl Technologies
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All that money on therapy has finally paid off I think.
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refer to subject
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence."
<< please vote!! >>
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Usually if I have a problem bugging me I just won't go to bed until it's solved.
This isn't always possible but I prefer spending a couple more hours on it than putting it on hold 'till the next day.
Then another rule of thumb I have kind of contradicts the previous:
If it takes more than a couple of hours to figure it out then it's better to put it on hold.
It's amazing how our brain can find solution to problems when we're not strictly thinking about them.
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I agree... I find it difficult to sleep knowing that I can fix the problem or complete the work in a couple of hours... but at times one need to and then you dream of it 
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality!!!
http://aniruddhaloya.blogspot.com
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When intaking a new language I find I dream about the bloody syntax, almost always end up in a perpetual loop, wake up and end up grumpy for the entire day. The wife hates it when I'm in a learning phase.
Once I get the syntax settled it is only coding problems that wake me, usually about 4am, thankfully I always seem to be able to remember the details the next morning.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Same for me, and not just coding but any other job I have had.
I think it is born of the anxiety.
I once had a direct sales job, and I dreamt my way through the sales pitch nightly but always woke up before the close which was the bit I was struggling with.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
Shed Petition[ ^]
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Last week I've dreamed that I was debugging some JavaScript horror and whenever I got error or glitch I felt sharp stomach pain and after several errors I woke up with real stomachache...
Moral of this story is:
Don't involve in coding related activities after heavy and spicy dinner - both will haunt while asleep and vulnerable! 
P.S.
Subconsciousness can act like a tricky bastard.
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if i have worked on some complex code repetitively over the day, i dream that i am debugging code.
But sometimes mind helps to find solution when you are not actually working and doing other things(like getting cup of coffee, using lift or simply visiting the cafeteria) and thinking about code , an idea pops up in mind.
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yes your right, sometimes it happens when I'm going home at work... multiple times this happened to me
modified 18-Jun-12 4:01am.
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Yes, at times it does work that way
Simply put the problem to hold if you have already spent more than a couple of hours fixing it... take a break, may be a long one, and it may get solved with a fresh and relaxed mind
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality!!!
http://aniruddhaloya.blogspot.com
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