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Busy Status Bar

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Re: Busy Status Bar

#491

Post by masto »

Back in 2013ish, I installed an industrial stack light at my desk (https://www.flickr.com/photos/masto/54069311973/) and informed my coworkers that it would save them the trouble of walking all the way across the room to talk to me if I was too busy to be interrupted.

I am not advocating or praising this behavior; I was definitely going through my prima donna phase.

Later I became very timid about talking to people because the company culture was "if I have my headphones on, please don't interrupt me" but everyone had headphones on all the time because the office was a nightmare of noise and distraction.

The ubiquitous slack (or equivalent) channel has a lot of downsides, but when weighed against the alternatives, I think I like it the best. But I'm very conscious of the fact that not everybody's brain has the same attention system. I think that's one of the reasons this little device has generated so many strongly worded comments. It's probably neither the most rude thing ever nor the most helpful thing ever. What would be great for productivity and happiness would be if we could find a way not to force everyone to try to work under the same environmental constraints. (Aspirational: I don't know how to do this.)

Re: Busy Status Bar

#492

Post by tshaddox »

yard2010 wrote: post #488
gosub100 wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you have the right to tell your coworkers to leave you alone. Part of working means collaboration and if you're unwilling to do that, you don't belong on a team. You're not doing brain surgery that will permanently alter the life of some helpless patient. you're not meticulously stacking the last card on top of a 10 ft house of cards exhibit where tens of hours of work will be completely lost if your co…

> You're not meticulously stacking the last card on top of a 10 ft house of cards exhibit where tens of hours of work will be completely lost if your concentration strays to show your face to another human being and utter a few words. You have no idea. Thank god we have this WFH thing now. I can build this house of cards without anyone interrupting me saying I'm not building a house of cards.

But really, as a software engineer you should not be building a house of cards, right? Surely you should not boldly insist that you never be subjected to collaboration from other members of your team because you are intent on building a system that is in constant danger of collapse.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#493

Post by thesuitonym »

rgrmrts wrote: post #459

This is a neat idea (and good looking product), but unfortunately the issue is the people who tend to interrupt you in the office ignore all explicit signals in my experience. Wearing noise cancelling headphones is an accepted sign of “in the flow, pls don’t interrupt” yet some folks feel like it doesn’t apply to them. Or they’d just stand next to your desk waiting for your attention. I’m pretty jaded (and probably s…

I don't want to disagree with your general statement, because it's correct, but I would like to point out that wearing noise cancelling headphones is not a good signal of ``in the flow, pls don’t interrupt.'' The only thing it's a good signal of is ``I'm listening to something.''

Some people wear headphones simply because they want to listen to music or a podcast while they send/check email. Some people only put them on when they're in a meeting. And yes, some people wear them because they want to be left alone.

There are as many reasons to wear noise cancelling headphones as there are people wearing noise cancelling headphones, and assuming that everyone around you should know what it means to you is as insane as walking up to someone wearing noise cancelling headphones and asking for an update.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#494

Post by Spivak »

zhovner wrote: post #464
parhamn wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put a CO2 + temp/humidity sensor in there and it's a no-brainer. The sensors could be nice to hack on too.

CO2 sensor is too expensive. No one will buy this device for $500

You can get a good CO2 sensor for less than $50 [1]. For large-batch orders the whole device can be less than $50 [2]. Where are you getting an almost $300 addition to the base price?

[1] https://sensirion.com/products/catalog/SCD30

[2] https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/vindstyrka-air-quality-sensor-s...

Re: Busy Status Bar

#495

Post by joshgachnang »

tshaddox wrote: post #492
yard2010 wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're not meticulously stacking the last card on top of a 10 ft house of cards exhibit where tens of hours of work will be completely lost if your concentration strays to show your face to another human being and utter a few words. You have no idea. Thank god we have this WFH thing now. I can build this house of cards without anyone interrupting me saying I'm not building a house of cards.

But really, as a software engineer you should not be building a house of cards, right? Surely you should not boldly insist that you never be subjected to collaboration from other members of your team because you are intent on building a system that is in constant danger of collapse.

I don't think the suggestion is to "never" be subjected to collaboration, but certainly there should be a balance between collaboration and deep work that shouldn't be interrupted if possible.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#496

Post by AvAn12 »

Cool product! Still think Joel Spolsky was right that coders and engineers do best when they have an office with a door that closes though. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/19/where-do-these-peo...

I worked on a trading floor for several years - open floorpan is the right way for a trading operation to be set up because the whole nature of the job is to interrupt and be interrupted throughout the day. Not so for data science / AI / engineering work, unless it's a help desk, IMHO...

Re: Busy Status Bar

#497

Post by hackable_sand »

tshaddox wrote: post #492
yard2010 wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're not meticulously stacking the last card on top of a 10 ft house of cards exhibit where tens of hours of work will be completely lost if your concentration strays to show your face to another human being and utter a few words. You have no idea. Thank god we have this WFH thing now. I can build this house of cards without anyone interrupting me saying I'm not building a house of cards.

But really, as a software engineer you should not be building a house of cards, right? Surely you should not boldly insist that you never be subjected to collaboration from other members of your team because you are intent on building a system that is in constant danger of collapse.

With my experience now..

I fully accept that programming is purely a mental task. I choose to think with others and then code in my own time. The tasks are now so short that there is literally no space for someone to interrupt.

Everything else is productivity theater.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#498

Post by Ancapistani »

71bw wrote: post #379
floam wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually fake ones will inevitably show "(c)" because they couldn't get authorization for the copyright key. If you zoom in you can see the gaps in the circle betraying the deception. To be extra cautious, select it to make sure it's real text and not a screenshot of a real copyright notice - this is a common workaround. There is also one known proof of concept exploit using false glyphs in web fonts - this is why ma…

©©©©©©©© I just got 8 of those with no authorization

Have you not heard of responsible disclosure!?

Re: Busy Status Bar

#499

Post by bityard »

rgrmrts wrote: post #459

This is a neat idea (and good looking product), but unfortunately the issue is the people who tend to interrupt you in the office ignore all explicit signals in my experience. Wearing noise cancelling headphones is an accepted sign of “in the flow, pls don’t interrupt” yet some folks feel like it doesn’t apply to them. Or they’d just stand next to your desk waiting for your attention. I’m pretty jaded (and probably s…

> Wearing noise cancelling headphones is an accepted sign of “in the flow, pls don’t interrupt”

Well, someone could always say, sorry I thought those were just regular headphones. :)

Anyway, my philosophy is that I'm being paid by my employer not only to do work, but to help others do their job as well. I WANT to be the person that my co-workers are comfortable walking up to and asking questions even if I am in the middle of something. (Because I'm ALWAYS in the middle of something anyway.) It doesn't take many interactions like this before they start to associate you with the word "indispensable." Which is a good for job security and peer testimonials. And of course making friends.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#500

Post by tshaddox »

thesuitonym wrote: post #493
rgrmrts wrote: post #459

This is a neat idea (and good looking product), but unfortunately the issue is the people who tend to interrupt you in the office ignore all explicit signals in my experience. Wearing noise cancelling headphones is an accepted sign of “in the flow, pls don’t interrupt” yet some folks feel like it doesn’t apply to them. Or they’d just stand next to your desk waiting for your attention. I’m pretty jaded (and probably s…

I don't want to disagree with your general statement, because it's correct, but I would like to point out that wearing noise cancelling headphones is not a good signal of ``in the flow, pls don’t interrupt.'' The only thing it's a good signal of is ``I'm listening to something.'' Some people wear headphones simply because they want to listen to music or a podcast while they send/check email. Some people only put them…

Some people also wear them the entire day.
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