>
> It isn't really OT, what better way to figure out what to promote about the
> current iteration of Pov than to discover not only what people like about
> it, but who those people are and why they feel as they do?
>
> One of the great things about Pov is that it forces you to utilize
> visualization techniques, which improves your spatial skills and overall
> mental proficiency in imagining complex things. This translates very well
> into software development skills, as I will explain later.
>
> An exercise I taught my wife and 6yo son which I have found to be very
> effective, is to imagine a V8 engine in your mind, as a transparent
> assembly, then run it, imagining each part operating properly at the same
> time while rotating it around mentally and pulling pieces away, changing
> the color, texture and transparency levels the entire time. You can even
> cause it to fail in a number of ways.
>
> You can then extend the idea to even more complex machines. A good place to
> start is with a 2 stroke engine and work your way up to successively more
> complex devices.
>
> Envisioning chemical reactions down to the bonds/electron shell/valency
> interactions can be very effective as well, which then builds into the
> ability to visualize mathematical expressions as surfaces and volumes.
>
> This technique is relaxing and really develops many skills such as thinking
> along multiple, even contradictory, lines simultaneously. It isn't hard and
> can be learned fairly easily.
>
> A huge roadblock people unwittingly foist upon themselves is falling prey
> to thinking linearly in words and speech, instead of multidimensional
> images. This gets you into the habit of self constraint in mental
> processing.
>
> That constraint is also what stops people from reading a page or paragraph
> at once, as instead they read to themselves in their mind. Your eyes
> capture the page at once, and if you train yourself you can assimilate the
> information at that same rate.
>
> Most of the work I do with software is handled as a visualization exercise
> and a background process, as I spend time doing other things or sitting
> there with a bowl of fine Virginia flake tobacco, letting my mind process
> all of the algorithmic interactions. Once that is all wrapped up, I spend a
> few hours coding, and I am done. It is basically hours or days of quiet
> contemplation followed by moments of frenzied typing. ;-)
>
> This technique of visualization has enabled me to develop the reputation at
> work for writing fully formed software with few to zero bugs, and in most
> circumstances to debug legacy code without running it, once I memorize the
> code base.
>
> I wasn't kidding when I credited Pov and the Dev team for my career. While
> my memory has always been very close to eidetic (but alas, I age...), I
> doubt my mind would function as it does now without the influence Pov has
> imparted to me, thus granting the ability to visualize code interaction as
> stated. Cheers to all, and my undying thanks.
>
> Perhaps this post will be of benefit to those who are considering a career
> to which such modes of thinking would be advantageous. Give it a try, you
> will likely surprise yourself with what you can do in short time.
>
> Now this really IS off topic lol!
>
> Ian

That's fascinating. I was a furniture designer in a previous life. I designed
before there was CAD and modellers and after. Before, to picture how all the
pieces would look together I would just have to go lie down and close my eyes
and just move everything around in my head. See it from different angles, try it
with different shapes. I first discovered POV as an aid. Looking back all my
best designs came out of that process of using one's imagination rather than
letting the techniques of software controlling what it has been programmed to
pre-visualize what it thinks you should see.

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