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by unfocussed_mike 1596 days ago
> No, it's because programming requires a mental model of the software and most managers don't have that. Add in constant interruptions and the inability to focus and you have a recipe for disaster.

This is so strikingly true. I try to explain to people who want me to pause a job and do something else that in my head I have this large, abstract structure of what I am trying to build, that is in an abstraction that itself is ephemeral -- it doesn't map nicely onto black boxes or pipes or anything. It is whatever works at that moment, and it requires me to tour it in my head all the time for it to exist at all.

But to me it isn't a question of focus, strictly speaking, because focus doesn't explain my interaction with that model. It's more a question of relaxed, constant presence; it's about having blur over other stuff. If I can inhabit that model in my brain without having to worry too much, it starts to work itself through while I am doing menial tasks like washing up or laundry or cleaning.

As soon as the business side of my freelance life takes over as it sometimes must, I am suddenly on the outside of that abstraction looking in. And no amount of detailed notes or documentation or diagramming will help me back in quickly.
1 comments
jcelerier 1596 days ago
> I try to explain to people who want me to pause a job and do something else that in my head I have this large, abstract structure of what I am trying to build, that is in an abstraction that itself is ephemeral -- it doesn't map nicely onto black boxes or pipes or anything. It is whatever works at that moment, and it requires me to tour it in my head all the time for it to exist at all.

you can send them this comic directly: https://i.imgur.com/3uyRWGJ.jpg

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bena 1596 days ago
You can. You can also demonstrate the issue in several other ways.

However, it never works. It may last a week, a day, a few hours, but sooner or later, they're going to believe that you're just staring off into space and that it's fine to interrupt you. That you can pick up and put down your task as easily as you would a pen.

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unfocussed_mike 1596 days ago
Aha! I had seen this before, and lost it. Thanks :-)
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