I think that there's two distinct ideas here, and they're fused together. One of them (IMO) is valid, the other is not. "Programmers spend too much time attent

I think that there's two distinct ideas here, and they're fused together. One of them (IMO) is valid, the other is not. "Programmers spend too much time attention-seeking, or debating online, instead of actually writing code" is a valid topic to debate over; I can see arguments on both sides, but it's certainly a thing that could be argued. The work we do is more important than all the meta-stuff surrounding that work. "Programmers are too pampered and we should just give them all shitty old computers in shitty offices without perks", though... workspaces are important, as are the tools. A large monitor means I can have more stuff open at once, and I know that I'm more productive when I have an external monitor than when I don't, and I need to cmd-tab a bunch between editor, terminal, and browser. Companies don't offer good equipment and perks because they're charitable, they do it because it produces results (more often than not).