It's simple - when you are working, you aren't free to take long and/or frequent calls from family/friends; or go fetch grocery even if you are working from hom

It's simple - when you are working, you aren't free to take long and/or frequent calls from family/friends; or go fetch grocery even if you are working from home. When you are at home, unless it's a serious outage, you don't take unnecessary calls relating to work. This, of course, is good advice, and fits well to any sort of individual endeavor, being programming, painting, or wrenching on your bike. I think many people react negatively to articles like this one because they read it as prescriptive (that is, this is how you _should_ work as a programmer) rather than _descriptive_ (that is, this is what works for me as a programmer, taking into account my character). Generally, I work best at home, free of distractions, but there are times when collaborative work at the office is also productive. YMMV.