I don't mean to sound like I'm chaining myself to the oars, and it's all a matter of degree. Talking design or shooting the breeze with the other guys is great

I don't mean to sound like I'm chaining myself to the oars, and it's all a matter of degree. Talking design or shooting the breeze with the other guys is great and all, but sometimes I already know what I need to build if only everyone would just let me keep it in my head long enough to get anywhere on it. I find Joel's "15 minutes" optimistic. When a dozen people need immediate answers about stuff I haven't thought about since last year, and I try and fail a dozen times to actually write some code only to go home exhausted without a single commit to my name, it's utterly demoralizing. I go out of my way to respect others' time in the zone as an overreaction to how rarely mine is.