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I have two rules for interruptions: 1. Please do, but 2. If I signal that I need time, respect that. #2 is the flip-side of interrupting: Don't persist if

I have two rules for interruptions: 1. Please do, but 2. If I signal that I need time, respect that. #2 is the flip-side of interrupting: Don't persist if there are any signs you should not. I am more than willing to help people with their problems, and I love answering questions, teaching, providing advice, discussing thorny problems... ...but I won't countenance an "interrupt": Come to my office, knock on my door, say my name, whatever, but if my hand shoots up with the "Just a moment" index in the air, respect that. If I do that, it's because what I have in my head will take me far too long to regain once lost - and the interruption will blow it up. I need to checkpoint. Maybe even solve. I need anywhere from a few seconds to an hour (and, yeah, I may forget you were there, foibly human and all that). Pretty much everyone I've ever worked with has learned that I have all the time in the world for them, except when I don't, I will let them know when I don't, without being rude (well, perhaps debatable, it is the barest acknowledgement), and when I can I will give them all I can. Unless you persisted. On a good day, when I am feeling open and relaxed, hopefully we can talk about how to manage things differently, figure out a way that works for us. On a cross day, an impatient day, I will kill you with fire. Metaphorically. Being a foibly human. Who sometimes overvalues his time. We are both likely to regret this. Hopefully we will find occasion to laugh about it later. (Over the decades, the "just a moment" finger comes up less often, at least in part because I've learned those thoughts I was holding were neither so valuable nor so fragile as I once thought. Often, it barely starts to rise and I've already shifted gears, caching things away for later. I had to teach myself that because I really do prefer taking the interrupt and helping to breathing flame.)

lambda_obrien 6y ago
That's pretty much me, I told my wife if I put up the finger to wait and try again in 15 minutes, unless it's my son's daiper or whatever, then I'll happily take the loss of context. I also found that functional programming, types or type annotations, and writing very small functions glued together by longer functions helps to reduce cognitive load when solving problems. Then I can add comments to literally bracket the area I am searching for the problem or solution and slowly move them closer together as I rule out functions and stuff.
viklove 6y ago
> On a cross day, an impatient day, I will kill you with fire. So... are you working on that? Calling yourself "foible" doesn't forgive you of your shortcomings.

lambda_obrien 6y ago

That's pretty much me, I told my wife if I put up the finger to wait and try again in 15 minutes, unless it's my son's daiper or whatever, then I'll happily take the loss of context. I also found that functional programming, types or type annotations, and writing very small functions glued together by longer functions helps to reduce cognitive load when solving problems. Then I can add comments to literally bracket the area I am searching for the problem or solution and slowly move them closer together as I rule out functions and stuff.

viklove 6y ago

> On a cross day, an impatient day, I will kill you with fire. So... are you working on that? Calling yourself "foible" doesn't forgive you of your shortcomings.