For times I need to block out the background noise, I turn to music, specifically:
They have 50+ free tracks of music with mostly no speaking or words that work pretty well to tune out with while trying to focus. Works pretty good for me to preserve a flow when I get one.
They should have compared scans of someone deep in zen meditation. I’ve been coding many years, and while I am no zen master I have practiced meditation and the closest mind state I can compare to deep programming is to deep meditation. I’ve spoken to other coders and they have told me the same thing.
I remember many times when my (now ex-) wife would come into my office in the middle of an intense coding session and would start talking to me, and I would be thinking to myself “I know she’s there, and I know she’s saying something, but I have no clue what she’s saying.” Clearly my language centers would disconnect during coding and would take a little time before “turning back on”.
Sounds like an avenue for a follow-on study.
What is this “2” of which you speak?
I see you have also mastered the companion art of linguistics. bows deeply
My spouse, who has been coding for 50 years, says:
“Programming involves mapping conceptual entities into proprioceptive space, so it’s not surprising that it activates both the logic and spatial parts of the brain.”
WIKtionary says: “proprioception: The sense of the position of parts of the body, relative to other neighbouring parts of the body.”
class Still : Alive
{
this.was = a.triumph;
I_m = making;
a.note(here, "Huge Success!");
Aperture Science()
{
we do = what;
we must = because;
we can;
for (theGood of = all; of <= us; except++)
{
the.ones(who, are(dead));
}
}
}
Even “math” is not a single entity: there’s arithmetic, geometry, and all sorts of other higher-order math. You can be good at one, and terrible at another. So generalizations about being “good at math” are fairly useless.
my problem with fMRI studies in general: a) the spatial resolution of the findings is quite vague b) you are measuring blood flow and use this as a surrogate for neuronal activity - but you don’t really know if this activity is inhibitory or excitatory c) as you need to set a threshold for “signal”, it’s quite possible a relevant region with few cells, which is in a similar place in different individuals, starts activity which then spreads to larger areas of the cortex, and these might be different in every individual. Kind of watching the screen in the cinema and missing the projector d) it seems every fMRI study seems to mention “activity in the prefrontal cortex”. We know for >100 years that the (pre)frontal cortex plays a significant role in personality 
Mastering math means high levels, scores, and a degree were achieved. Your measure could be different than mine. I achieved a perfect score in math on the ACT, which isn’t as big of a deal now as when I took the ACT. Back then this put me in the top 0.1% of students. Also taught my high school calculus class how to work problems and think like I did usually 4 students at a time. This tripled the rate of learning for my class. Normally a high school class makes it thru calc 1 only, my whole class in 2 semesters made it several chapters past calc 3 into diff eq which is faster than the rate taught to college students. I continued to tutor calculus in college and occasionally after college too. Went to a top all engineering college where your math had to be perfect as professors didn’t give partial credit on tests and most tests only had 4 problems. One mistake on the main problem would result in a 60% D- and they didn’t curve the class. I derived new formulas on tests and found ways to cross apply techniques between disciplines for instance applied electrical formulas to fluid problems. Also did applied differential equations in my physics classes and many Fourier and LaPlace transforms in my electrical engineering classes. Less than 5% of students in my all engineering college did applied differential equations on open ended problems. I enjoyed deriving formulas and working proofs and I have yet to meet another student that derived new formulas in the middle of tests. I believe perfect scores, experience teaching calculus and engineering, and deriving equations and new ways of explaining math qualifies me to say I mastered math. Am I a master now? No, I’ve forgotten many formulas and am out of practice as Statistics is the only math I’ve really used on the job since graduating. But I did take the 2 day EIT test that covers all subjects in engineering 10 years after I graduated and got a 85% and passed. Do I know everything regarding math, no. Is my measure perfect, no. I’m sure I’m not a master on everyone’s scale
2+2=100 was cute though
Good at math generally means someone is able to solve most geometry, algebra, and trig problems accurately and has taken calculus.
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