211–220 of 253 posts
> Now, tell him to add those numbers in his head. He can look at the screen and talk/whisper/mutter to himself, but he can’t write anything down and he can’t type anything. "Why can't I write anything down?" "Because when I'm seven to ten levels deep in a stack of issues, I never write anything down, I need to keep it all in my head ." "But why?" "Well... I have a whole mental model constructed. I couldn't possibly w…
(circa 2013)
I have been programming since 1977/78, and sometimes for work, but most of the time for fun. As someone who does technical work at heights with rope access, and many years of technical diving on hydraulics, pneumatic, and electrical equipment, I can say it all depends on your ability to shut out interruptions and get to a good stopping point. I get frustrated when I am programming and I am interrupted, but my most fr…
Airline pilots have a very high workload when landing and it requires intense focus starting about 30 minute before. They are not allowed to talk about anything unrelated in that period.
I'm bored of this whiny prima donna fallacy that interrupting a programmer is worse than interrupting anybody else.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an accountant and developer I can tell you that many accounting tasks are very similar to coding. I have spent years having to prepare management accounts in an open office and it is exhausting trying to maintain the focus required. And yes people interrupt you just like any other day because their roles require timely responses. I have an office now and it helps a bit, but normally I hide at home and turn off ema…
It looks to me like you’re wanting to make a counterpoint to the person you’re responding to, but he did put ”bookkeepers” in the same category of people who tend to need deep focus and not be disturbed. Do you agree that not every role shares that quality, and that the parent comment has a point? If you were agreeing with him and just adding to the argument, then my apologies.
Bookkeeping and management accountancy are not really similar professions. A bookkeeper is focused on data entry, and tends to be a small company generalist, adding up invoices, receipts and sales tax etc. I have been a purchaser ledger clerk (processing supplier invoices en masse) and it requires a different kind of concentration entirely. I am rubbish at that kind of work now, I think your mind changes as you progress to the more supervisory work. A management accountant is trying to turn the outputs of this work (amongst other things) into coherent management information, filling in the gaps and making judgements and estimates.
I have been programming since 1977/78, and sometimes for work, but most of the time for fun. As someone who does technical work at heights with rope access, and many years of technical diving on hydraulics, pneumatic, and electrical equipment, I can say it all depends on your ability to shut out interruptions and get to a good stopping point. I get frustrated when I am programming and I am interrupted, but my most fr…
APL and J : Agreed. Haskell is my refuge when Python starts getting verbose. Even if you're interrupted, there's a slim chance with concise languages that you could carry that line in your head even as you are dragged away from your context.
I have been programming since 1977/78, and sometimes for work, but most of the time for fun. As someone who does technical work at heights with rope access, and many years of technical diving on hydraulics, pneumatic, and electrical equipment, I can say it all depends on your ability to shut out interruptions and get to a good stopping point. I get frustrated when I am programming and I am interrupted, but my most fr…
Interruptions are very challenging with any deep work that takes hours. This is true. What I am facing however, is a related issue. Perhaps because I have not been doing much programming lately, I find it increasingly difficult to actually get and be in the zone. When I go in, I go all in, and enter a kind of fugue state where the hours slip away. While for some this may sound advantageous, in the past, it has been a…
Nice way to put it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you saying getting into that "in the zone" state affected your mental health. Interesting. Any examples of the side effects? Is it hard to put into words?
I find that I have to put myself in a state of deep dissatisfaction in order to develop the motivation to dive in. If I get interrupted before accomplishing anything then I'll remain in a bad mood. And if I think I am going to be interrupted then I won't even start the first dissatisfaction step because I don't want to be stopped halfway. One workaround for that is to define the work in smaller pieces so that interru…
> Your non-techie peers just don’t get it, no matter how many times you try to make them understand In my opinion this is more common to software development only because software developers, at laest in Europe, do not have the same social recognition as other professionals. An undisciplined PM/PO interrupting everybody to get estimates to update their GANTT chart will be as disruptive in an operating theater or in a…
I have not worked in software development but I do work in healthcare. At least in my country, management of hospitals has largely been taken away from healthcare professionals and given to career managers whose background is usually administration, HR or finance. They largely display the same irritating traits as you describe and increasingly interfere in clinical decision making while remaining largely unaccountabl…