Programming Deja Vu

I just had a déjà vu while programming: I added a quick work-around to a class and when completing it (adding an import statement) I was sure, that I had experienced exactly this same change some time earlier - which is impossible in this case.

This one was just a fleeting impression. I have had stronger ones, one I now only vaguely remember had me searching a while for traces of the first instance (I didn't know of déjà vu then), especially, because the vision was about a nice, but complicated graphical effect.

I have had this kind of experience quite some times now. I even get the impression, that they occur increasingly often (once a month). It's not always while programming, but mostly related to computer (-science).

Who else has had such experiences?

-- GunnarZarncke

All the time. That's when I know to refactor.

I get déjà vu all the time: in the middle of conversations with people, and during all sorts of random events. The effect is that I swear I had experienced the event in great detail in a dream. But I can never remember that I had a preminition until after it already happens. Alas I suspect I'm not psychic, maybe psycho. I never had déjà vu until after my, ahem, "experimental" college years, so if your déjà vu becomes annoyingly frequent, perhaps a trip to the doctor is prudent.

Likely there's nothing they can do about it. The feeling of recognition is independent from actual recognition. In deja vu, all that's happening is that you feel you recognize something that never happened, or maybe it did happen. There are people for whom the two (the feeling and the fact) are completely separate since they no longer feel anything is familiar. The stress this causes makes them go insane and die.

More prosaically, the feeling of recognition is also the same as the Aha in humour.

The déjà vu in programming originates in the fact that most development projects face similar problems. Because they are never exactly the same, you code something close, but not exectly like before. Unfortunately, the existing tools are not flexible enough to be adjusted to the various demands.

I have a feeling that déjà vu may be caused by things for some reason going directly into memory at the same time as being registered consciously. Thus, it triggers a recognition response when the conscious parts then talk to the memory banks. I don't know enough about cognition to know if this is utter b*llsh*t. I'm not even sure if I came up with it myself or if I read about it somewhere. -- ClaesWallin

I was sitting in my cubicle, in front of a monitor, typing on the keyboard and moving the mouse, while writing code. And all of a sudden, I had the feeling I had done this exact same thing before. I think déjà vu can hit especially hard if you have worked in a variety of offices, yet all with the same type of cubicle hell office layouts. Being in a cubicle where the walls are always about the same, and your vision is limited to the cloth covered walls surrounding you, and doing the same activity with similiar equipment, has to be a big factor in people having déjà vu while programming.

See PfompVision -- MirkoBlueming