It does lend itself quite well to this type of focus, however I fully agree that this isn't unique to programming. I suspect the need for "flow", or zen, or dee

It does lend itself quite well to this type of focus, however I fully agree that this isn't unique to programming. I suspect the need for "flow", or zen, or deep-concentration of what-have-you is driven by the nature of the task, which involves juggling & visualizing several layers of fairly complex abstraction and rule sets. I wish he would have stopped short of needing to essentially diminish other occupations. I'm not an accountant, but it wouldn't surprise me if occasionally they too fall into the "zone". Why wouldn't they? Auditing a large and complex system could easily require as much mental agility as coding a piece of software.