A coworker of mine was just complaining how the cleaning crew had thrown away his bent-up paperclip that he played with while thinking this last weekend. This made me start to wonder what I play with when thinking about a problem while programming. It turns out that I actually have 2 different items.
My main "thinking toy" is a pen, funny enough. I, for some reason, like to take the cap off & on many times during the day. This has, unfortunately, led to the pen cap not staying on that well, and as such I've had many run-ins with the ink. My second "toy" is a stress ball that looks like a car. Most of the bumper paint has been worn off, so its obviously had some good use.
What types of "thinking toys" do you use, and have you actually stopped and thought - "Why am I playing with this?"
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