Ask HN: Would you employ a developer who talks to himself during work?

Is he doing some kind of rubber duck debugging? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging

I don't talk to myself, but sometimes by simply talking aloud about my problems to my peers I can flesh out a solution to a hard problem.

I have seen other programmers talk to themselves to find a solution when they're stuck, and it seems to work quite well.

At least I know he's focused on his work. As opposed to say writing an Ask HN about it.

Probably not, if he's doing that all the time, the office is shared, he does it in different voices and/or uses the Black Speech of Mordor.

Other than that, why not? When I'm behind closed doors, I sometimes to this myself, too. Giving thoughts proper form often helps to order them, so both writing and monologue are perfectly fine. That's what some people get out of pair programming.

We had an employee once who essentially narrated himself. For instance, if he was installing the latest build of our software to test the installer, he might say something like this:

    I'm putting the floppy in the drive. I see it on the
    desktop. I'm double clicking it. I see the new
    installer. Now I'm opening RegEdit. I'm finding the
    keys for $OurProduct, and deleting them to test a fresh
    install. Now I'm double clicking the installer. I see
    a dialog box. I'm typing in my product key, and hitting
    the install button...

If you had to do anything with him, he'd include you in the narration:

    OK, now I'm watching Bob make a new release for me to test.
    His compile finished, and he's copying to a floppy. He's
    giving me the floppy. I'm going to go test it...

This got real annoying real fast.

I would, since I do it myself. Infrequently actually, but a lot of it is swearing.

Do you accommodate other preferences of the developer? Do you let them adjust their chair or rearrange their desk? Do you let them come in at flex hours, as long as the work is done and they don't unduly inconvenience others (meetings, etc)? Do you let them wear headphones at work? Do you let them choose their preferred editor (again, as long as it doesn't inconvenience others) or perhaps even OS?

If so, why would you not accommodate someone who works slightly differently in this one way?

It depends. If they are talking and it is barely audible, sure...I do this, and with the exceptional expletive, it's more or less silent. Most of the developers here, myself included, wear headphones for the day unless we're talking to one another. I don't think anyone even notices I'm mouthing things to myself or reading "out-loud" (e.g., moving my mouth).

Not totally related, but I'm also bobbing my head to music all day (usually groovesalad on some.fm)

All that said...how would you know if you're going to hire someone who talks to themselves anyway, or is this just hypothetical?

Yes, I would. Thinking out loud helps a lot in my experience - and that's what most people perceive as "talking to himself".

Since the question refers to a developer (a special category of employees) the answer is a strong "Yes".

if they file clean code, solve problems, are positive in their nature and make the people around them great they can marry their their iPad.

some of the best people startup people, at least in my experience, are "unique."

Embrace the odd, create the future.

I wouldn't. At one job, the desks were arranged so that I sat at my computer with my back to my coworker (who talked to himself/no-one-in-particular/me throughout the day) and I could never tell when he was trying to talk to me or just vocalizing something. Also, I found it annoying. A small annoyance, sure, but if it bothers your other developer's, it's not a good idea.

I wouldn't consider it a factor in an employment decision unless it was exceptional in some way (i.e. it was non-stop, extremely loud, disruptive).

Talking to yourself is fine. It's when you start responding to yourself that you should be worried.

There's a difference between delusional psychosis, being socially awkward, and talking to yourself to debug computer problems. However, some might believe it to be a very thin line between psychosis and debugging computer problems aloud.

Depends. At the best, you're being paranoid. At the worst, he could be developing schizophrenia. Is he in his late teens or early twenties, does he sound agitated or paranoid? Is his thought process coherent? What is he talking about? A young, paranoid male talking gibberish to himself without regard for who's around would be concerning. If you want a great portrait of schizophrenia, watch "The Soloist": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0821642/

But if he's not acting like that, then maybe he's just helping you expand your definition of normal.

If they were working from home, sure :P

I can't see it impacting on their work, but it might irritate others.

There is an obvious second question though, how would you know before you employed them. The question then becomes, would you fire an developer that talks to themselves at work.

In which case, No - I probably wouldn't. At least not without trying to find other ways of dealing with it, it is possible they don't even know they're doing it - and after making them aware you might find that they stop.

Sometimes people with dislexia or other reading problems will read aloud. Sometimes, the only way they can process the content is by hearing it.

Will he get a private office?

I talk to myself during work most of the time (but usually it happens in the privacy of my head only). Or better, I talk to the monitor in front of me as if it would help debug something faster :) ... well sometimes it does, actually. But when i become very frustrated with the piece of code i am debugging, I usually say something out loud as well.... swearing mostly :D

Sounds like the newest in agile techniques - pair programming for one. Write a book and start your consulting career now.

I talk to myself, even when not working. So yes. He's just special.

Sometimes if you're eager to say something to real people, you may talk to yourself (ADHD people do it). If you're standing right there and he's talking to himself, then he either doesn't know you're there, or it's just helping him think.

No. I worked with a guy who did this. I didn't have to sit at the desk next to him, but the guy who did... Well, he absolutely hated it.

It's also quite a bit different than 2 people talking, or even someone talking on the phone.

I think a quiet workplace is very important for proper thinking.

You know of good developers who don't?

I mean, as long as he isn't muttering about red staplers or burning the office down, what's the issue?

this would be an incidental, to me. perhaps it would be annoying, but i don't feel like it would necessarily impact his actual work.

Sure.

Talking to yourself is a symptom of stress. Because your working memory is too populated by stressors in order to keep the entire "conversation" inside your head, you externalize it. Think of it as paging out. The only inconvenience is that it can bother people. Well, maybe there are other inconveniences, too, but I'm not aware of any studies that suggest externalized verbal problem solving creates worse results than internalized problem solving, though I suspect it actually might be the case.