Yesterday I decided to go to lunch.  Alone.  On Purpose.  It’s not that I’m anti-social.  I’m probably less anti-social than the majority of developers I have worked with.  I have been working in my cubicle during lunch trying to complete some tasks I’ve been assigned, but I’ve started feeling like I never leave my desk.  I had already worked through most of lunch when I had decided to go, so I was about an hour after the lunch rush.

So I took a break.  I walked to a deli hidden away in the middle of a few office buildings down the street.  The “Secret Deli” as we refer to it at work.  I ordered a roast beef and cheddar sandwich on a garlic roll with every vegetable on the menu and a Snapple raspberry tea.  I grabbed a Sacramento News & Review, a local newspaper-ish publication and took a seat outside.  The newspaper grabbed my attention with an article on the front page “Why Twitter Sucks”, but that’s a topic for another post.

I picked a seat outside underneath a tree, next to a water fountain that resembles a small waterfall.  The sun was bright enough to keep me warm and so I sat there eating and reading, oblivious to the world around me.  It was awesome for me to feel like I could focus on enjoying lunch.

After I finished eating, I sat underneath the tree watching the pear blossoms fall in the wind into the fountain.  The foliage around the fountain is a vibrant green, like #234F32.  It made me think about the time we spend in cubicles, surrounded by dim walls.  The weight we assume onto our shoulders when we step into this small square of solitary confinement is too great if we isolate ourselves from brain stimulation you may find in the environment around you.

I’m going to start forcing myself out of the cube more and focus on “thinking out of the box”, literally.