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Deep work? We live in a world of open offices, daily standups, max-four-hour JIRA tickets and pair/mob programming. The people in charge don't believe that "d

Deep work? We live in a world of open offices, daily standups, max-four-hour JIRA tickets and pair/mob programming. The people in charge don't believe that "deep work" even means anything.

mateo411 8y ago
This is true, but most if not all of these tasks don't require Deep Work. Cal Newport is an academic. It takes a lot of thought and a distraction free environment to write papers about CS Theory. Most people in these environments usually know how to write software. Most of the software written isn't too complicated and doesn't require Deep Work. The design of these systems requires more thought, but the implementation should be fairly straightforward once you have a plan.
- commandlinefan 8y ago
  > Most of the software written isn't too complicated and doesn't require Deep Work There's a self-fulfilling prophecy for you. We assume a priori that developing software doesn't require much thought, so we'll skimp on environmental factors that contribute to actual thought and see what programming we can get out of it. And lo and behold, if you ignore the usability problems, security problems, out-of-control memory problems and the necessity of an army of testers to make up for the fact that nobody actually understands the code, the resulting software kind-of sort-of meets the requirements so we were right, software CAN be reliably produced with zero concentration in an all-interruptions, all-the-time environment!
ebiester 8y ago
You really can get deep work done in pair and mob programming, especially when trained in it. Consider https://cycle-gap.blogspot.com/2007/09/extreme-pair-programming-guy-steele-and.html https://cycle-gap.blogspot.com/2007/09/extreme-pair-programm... as an example of how it can look. Mind you, I don't recommend 10 hour sessions ever, much less to begin. I find it odd to believe that intense, deep work can only happen in solo.
justaaron 8y ago
i love you

Deep work? We live in a world of open offices, daily standups, max-four-hour JIRA tickets and pair/mob programming. The people in charge don't believe that "deep work" even means anything.

mateo411 8y ago

This is true, but most if not all of these tasks don't require Deep Work. Cal Newport is an academic. It takes a lot of thought and a distraction free environment to write papers about CS Theory. Most people in these environments usually know how to write software. Most of the software written isn't too complicated and doesn't require Deep Work. The design of these systems requires more thought, but the implementation should be fairly straightforward once you have a plan.

commandlinefan 8y ago
> Most of the software written isn't too complicated and doesn't require Deep Work There's a self-fulfilling prophecy for you. We assume a priori that developing software doesn't require much thought, so we'll skimp on environmental factors that contribute to actual thought and see what programming we can get out of it. And lo and behold, if you ignore the usability problems, security problems, out-of-control memory problems and the necessity of an army of testers to make up for the fact that nobody actually understands the code, the resulting software kind-of sort-of meets the requirements so we were right, software CAN be reliably produced with zero concentration in an all-interruptions, all-the-time environment!

ebiester 8y ago

You really can get deep work done in pair and mob programming, especially when trained in it. Consider https://cycle-gap.blogspot.com/2007/09/extreme-pair-programming-guy-steele-and.html https://cycle-gap.blogspot.com/2007/09/extreme-pair-programm... as an example of how it can look. Mind you, I don't recommend 10 hour sessions ever, much less to begin. I find it odd to believe that intense, deep work can only happen in solo.

justaaron 8y ago

i love you