You're creating a strawman. I can't see why Github would make the mistake you believe they'd make as they don't have the self-interest that Facebook and Twitter

You're creating a strawman. I can't see why Github would make the mistake you believe they'd make as they don't have the self-interest that Facebook and Twitter have in killing your focus with an onslaught of notifications. I think you could expect all forms of notification to be hidden by default. It would actually likely improve your ability to concentrate. You would be able to switch into another mode of a developers workflow without needing to context-switch onto an often focus-distracting browser. Anyway, my core point was that there are a combination of features that allow the creation of a new holistic programming experience. I am not arguing its correctness and I am not arguing that it would suit everybody. :)