Free Coding

With modern technology, people are looking at screens throughout the entire day, but sometimes our brains (and our eyes) need a break. Unfortunately, us programmers do not get a break so often. We cannot work without interacting with screens, and there isn't much way around it, or is there?

In rock climbing, there is a technique called free climbing or free solo climbing, in which the climber scales their obstacle without any safety devices. While it is extremely dangerous, many free climbers find they become more connected to nature, more thoughtful of their decisions, and, counter-intuitively, in a deeply relaxed state. So lets apply this method to programming. Imagine getting out a pencil and paper, going out to a park, and actually writing code. It sounds barbaric! Where's my backspace? How do I refactor? I need intellisense!

While free coding is quite the challenge, it could be a great exercise in patience, mindfulness, and relaxation. In free climbing, the result of failure in free climbing could be death. A free coder, however, might face the consequences of deeply rooted errors, which would actually help them! Expert free climbers reach a level where they truly do not need tools to reach the same heights at the same speeds as tool assisted climbers.

If we could become expert free coders, we could greatly increase our efficiency at converting thoughts to code with perfect accuracy. Each error we make in free coding more rigorously penalizes us, and could allow our brains to faster recognize mistakes, instead of relying on tools like intellisense and compilers. On top of that, a free coder must consider the architecture of their program comprehensively, so as not to avoid writing non-scalable or bounded solutions.

Overall, while free coding might not be practical in an occupational programming environment, it could still be a great non-screen activity that stimulates our brain and improves our ability to turn thoughts into code.

Author: William Del Giudice

delwillgiudice@gmail.com

u/delgoodie