Take a personality test, or Write a Nice Rant! (Score 3)

As a programmer, we think about the problem domain a lot, but we rarely turn our piercing gaze back upon ourselves. I find that when you have a mental block, it's time to stop programming for a while, and get your thoughts and feelings cleared up.
Here are two ideas:

1. Go take a personality test, and think about your personality, and the personalities of the people you work with (your clients, your boss, your co-workers).
In personality types, according to the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), I am an "INTP". The middle two letters (NT) are very common type of personality for programmers. First, the N, which stands for Intuitive, means you search for pattern and order in the universe, and you build an mental model of it. Think of it as Synaptic Object Oriented Programming. You want to figure things out, understand how they work. I call it the "mad scientist gene". The other parts for me, are Introversion (versus Extroversion), Thinking (versus Feeling), and Perceiving (versus Judging). I find that when I am in crisis (code block, or not doing well in a project) it helps to think about why I am upset and anxious, and what personal, emotional, irrational, yet real things are bothering me. One way to let that stuff surface is to recognize that your Extreme Code-Writing persona is one way of subjugating lots of other parts of you that you don't want to deal with. So try leaving that coping strategy behind for a while, try to find that emotional you, and wallow in it for a while, or leave the analytical you behind for a while, and operate in the other parts of your head and heart that normally lie around not doing much when you're programming.
In other words, programming is only "part of you" it's not all of you. It's not your reason for living, and it's not even your best part, most likely. Read a book about personality types, about people, about something emotional or personal, or read a devotional book, if you are religious. Understand your personality, and choose to live in a different head-space than you normally would, choose to live in.

2. Sometimes a good way to let everything bubble up to the surface is to write a good rant. I don't believe a rant needs to be sent to anyone else, but if it does need to be, then send it to one buddy. Even better, just write it and save it on your hard drive for 24 hours. Don't send it. After 24 hours, go back and read it forensically. Treat it like a core dump of a diseased program. That's what it is. Debug your mental state the next day. If there are good points to be made in your rant, isolate them, and save them. Hopefully those good points can be made to your boss or client in some way they can hear and process constructively.

Third bonus suggestion: Read slashdot for a while. :-)
Warren Postma