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> We really need to get past this smug idea that tech work is uniquely difficult in a way that no one else can understand. Any deep work suffers from interrupti

by xwdv 5y ago

> We really need to get past this smug idea that tech work is uniquely difficult in a way that no one else can understand. Any deep work suffers from interruptions, and programming isn't the only type of work that has significant mental context. This idea that programmers are uniquely vulnerable does no favors when trying to address the problem. We don't really have to. It is far better for us to keep selling the image that programming is something tantamount to wizardry than to make it seem like it can be understood on the same level with other kinds of work. For one, it's not really true. Programming requires a depth of focus you don't find in most other fields, and certainly within a single company no one has to work as deeply in their minds as the programmers do.

lowercased 5y ago
> and certainly within a single company no one has to work as deeply in their minds as the programmers do. I sort of agree, but... I do think there are orgs where folks do deep thought work who aren't labelled 'programmers', but... they're probably doing the same 'type' of thinking, at some level, as folks doing coding. I'm certain 'developers' aren't the only folks who do deep thinking work, but we seem to be ... the ones treated the most like we're not, at various companies. In law firms I've been in, all the lawyers get doors, and those doors are closed when they're doing 'deep work' (planning, writing, talking to clients, etc). That's ... deep work, and they're getting billed out at hundreds of dollars per hour. 20+ years ago, I was doing dev work getting billed out at $180/hr, and was stuck in a cube next to project managers who were on the phone all the time. Wearing headphones was seen as "rude" by colleagues around me, but them talking on the phone for 5+ hours per day 6 feet from me was... totally AOK.

by xwdv 5y ago

lowercased 5y ago

> and certainly within a single company no one has to work as deeply in their minds as the programmers do. I sort of agree, but... I do think there are orgs where folks do deep thought work who aren't labelled 'programmers', but... they're probably doing the same 'type' of thinking, at some level, as folks doing coding. I'm certain 'developers' aren't the only folks who do deep thinking work, but we seem to be ... the ones treated the most like we're not, at various companies. In law firms I've been in, all the lawyers get doors, and those doors are closed when they're doing 'deep work' (planning, writing, talking to clients, etc). That's ... deep work, and they're getting billed out at hundreds of dollars per hour. 20+ years ago, I was doing dev work getting billed out at $180/hr, and was stuck in a cube next to project managers who were on the phone all the time. Wearing headphones was seen as "rude" by colleagues around me, but them talking on the phone for 5+ hours per day 6 feet from me was... totally AOK.