4 ms·

I've never found it to be a problem, I guess I must be good at context switching. But then again I'm usually working on 4 or 5 things at a time anyway, so a few

I've never found it to be a problem, I guess I must be good at context switching. But then again I'm usually working on 4 or 5 things at a time anyway, so a few interruptions don't seem that bad! I like the break, and then there's the bonus of solving something by not thinking about it.

jasonwocky 12y ago
Same here. I work from home and often enough have a 2-year old wander into my office. Talk about random interruptions. But I don't notice skipping more than a beat. Maybe it's because I don't tend to work with really bad codebases that force me to keep huge mental models in my head while I'm making changes. Or perhaps I'm fast at getting ideas onto paper so that the stuff I need to keep in memory remains small. Either way, the dynamic the article describes is not an absolute, universal thing. There are environmental / behavioral factors at work besides "Developer, Interrupted."
- rancur 12y ago
  random interruptions aren't the problem, it's having to drop de-coupling work in a RTOS that I'm 3 days into when I get a support request that requires me to do the same in a second codebase, and then a phone call about a project I just deployed. I thought I was just an idiot, now I realize I was at a bad company; but [my inspiration is gone] it's too late for that now
AdeptusAquinas 12y ago
Your last point is a truism for me: if anything, having random questions or discussions to break up the dev work seems to imbue me with greater energy. Almost like being briefly forced to think about something different allows me to 'see the forest for the trees'.
zo1 12y ago
You're very lucky in that regard. For me, a context switch, especially when I'm working from home, not only throws me off for a few minutes, but also takes away my motivation that has a more than few-minute impact. Of course, I'm actively working on that, but interruptions don't help. And the more they happen, the more demoralizing they become and it's a vicious cycle.

jasonwocky 12y ago

Same here. I work from home and often enough have a 2-year old wander into my office. Talk about random interruptions. But I don't notice skipping more than a beat. Maybe it's because I don't tend to work with really bad codebases that force me to keep huge mental models in my head while I'm making changes. Or perhaps I'm fast at getting ideas onto paper so that the stuff I need to keep in memory remains small. Either way, the dynamic the article describes is not an absolute, universal thing. There are environmental / behavioral factors at work besides "Developer, Interrupted."

rancur 12y ago
random interruptions aren't the problem, it's having to drop de-coupling work in a RTOS that I'm 3 days into when I get a support request that requires me to do the same in a second codebase, and then a phone call about a project I just deployed. I thought I was just an idiot, now I realize I was at a bad company; but [my inspiration is gone] it's too late for that now

AdeptusAquinas 12y ago

Your last point is a truism for me: if anything, having random questions or discussions to break up the dev work seems to imbue me with greater energy. Almost like being briefly forced to think about something different allows me to 'see the forest for the trees'.

zo1 12y ago

You're very lucky in that regard. For me, a context switch, especially when I'm working from home, not only throws me off for a few minutes, but also takes away my motivation that has a more than few-minute impact. Of course, I'm actively working on that, but interruptions don't help. And the more they happen, the more demoralizing they become and it's a vicious cycle.