Wouldn't other left-brain activity, such as playing a musical instrument, have the same effect?
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Yes, probably, but it's harder to play a musical instrument in the office in day time, although everybody loves that when you do that after work.
All this left/right brain stuff is a myth[1]. I don't doubt doing something other than programming when you are stuck helps. My best ideas come in the shower, for example.
http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brain-myth...
Yes, those terms fail to correlate to brain activity. But that doesn't mean that there's not a real, subjective quality to different kinds of productive mental activity. Working with your hands (and with shapes or sounds or patterns) is a great way to take a break from doing heavy semantic/problem-solving thinking, and it has the crazy side effect of gradually giving you skills you probably wished you had.
I've been playing the ukulele at home during times when normally I would be refreshing Hacker News. It definitely fills that need to take a break from deductive thought, and after only a couple months suddenly I have a skill that I never had before. I recommend it.
Playing music is left and right brain activity.
Thanks for enlightening me after all these years!
No need for sarcasm.
I beg your pardon?