Why Do Programmers Love Coffee?



I’m a Python programmer and I love drinking coffee (and sometimes tea). One of my friends asked me the other day “Why do you programmers fetishize drinking coffee?”.

I think that’s a great question worth writing about. I believe the biggest reason is that coffee is a symbol of concentration. And coders need to concentrate to get any meaningful work done.

A Productivity Trigger For Coders

Having a cup of coffee by your side when you dive into some complicated code is part of a habit. It’s almost like a trigger for me when I’m pondering a complicated problem: As soon as I sit down with a cup of coffee in my hand I know the ideas will start flowing.

It’s also a signal to my coworkers and the people around me that says “Leave me alone, I need to get stuff done now.” It’s definitely a ritual for the other developers I spoke with.

Caffeine Makes You Smarter

There’s research proving that caffeine has cognitive benefits or “makes you smarter”. You fell drowsy when adenosine binds with the adenosine receptors in your brain. When you have coffee, the caffeine in it comes in and the receptor binds with it instead of the adenosine produced by your body.

That gives you more energy and a stronger ability to focus. That way caffeine is a drug that makes you better at executing your ideas. It’s like a tool that helps software developers get into the zone, to hunker down and get stuff done.

For me personally a big reason for drinking coffee is that it seems to wake up my brain in the morning. Maybe I’m just addicted to caffeine at this point but it feels amazing to get my brain into gear and ready for work with a strong cup of Joe in the morning.

Tea or no tea, work will be done. I don't believe in that fetish of drinking tea.

Sometimes my ideas comes up when I'm done eating fufu or while eating it.

What really gets my morning started is just my morning workout which tend to ease my muscle and brains before work. So drinking tea or coffee depends on if I have had too many fufu and I just need to change the diet or that's the only food available in the morning.

I use sleep as food. Sleep 6 pm wake up 12 0.0 , work till 4.30 , sleep till 6.30am rinse and repeat.