With all due respect to bump, Shagnasty and Athena, I found this to be eerily accurate,
Thanks for the responses, everybody. Of course I expected replies like the first couple, but it’s nice to see the serious ones too. Although I’m not a programmer, I know how that break does let your brain work on a problem while you’re thinking about other things.
Aside from a fair amount of time spent here, obviously, I’m also a roving troubleshooter. I frequently get phone calls and IMs for help with coding and systems issues from other programmers and testers, so I go sit with them and help them work through whatever’s breaking. I do general coaching as well; one of my major edges is that I come up to speed on new systems very quickly, and then can help others.
I’m also on the hook for management and business questions about some of our systems–“Is possible?” stuff, mostly. Even if isn’t possible, I have sort of a reputation for coming up with other ways off the cuff to accomplish the same thing.
Essentially, when I’m not coding–or thinking about coding, which is its own sort of work, as bump pointed out–but still working, I’m usually solving problems.