[farts_mckensy]

Walk on eggshells? Schedule a designated time to talk. It's not that difficult. Are you that disorganized that you need to share your thoughts the second they occur to you? Even for neurotypicals, it takes some time to refocus after interruption. Your approach has been proven to lower productivity and its costs companies serious money.

[gosub100]

Tell the person who is trying to talk that you're busy and you'll get back to them later. It's part of the interpersonal skill of learning to say no.

[IIsi50MHz]

Displaying a "Busy" signal is a way of implementing "No.". Another part of personal skills is learning when to not interrupt. Implementing an unambiguous signal can help. Learning to not ignore the signal helps. As long as the signal isn't abused or isn't "always on".

[farts_mckensy]

That would require them to be interrupted, which would subsequently require them to refocus. Your time is not more important than your coworker's time.

Each interruption is a drain on productivity, which costs the company money. What part about this do you not understand?

[gosub100]

It's not a lack of understanding, it's a difference in belief. I believe you are self-aggrandizing by pretending that you're some rain man whose superhuman skills, not found anywhere else or under any conditions other than pretentious "focus mode" - will evaporate if you're forced to be held to standard of common decency. Sorry dude, nothing you work on is that important.

[IIsi50MHz]

Your belief is based on a misunderstanding. If you have not worked in a context where holding large amounts of details and their relationships in your head does not lead to "losing the picture" when interrupted, you have had a luxury not everyone gets to experience.

Getting "into the flow", or loading/reloading the details into your head typically takes 15 to 30 minutes for sufficiently intricate task or dataset. In such a context, a mere, "Hey, you got a minute?" is costly — more so, if i happens repeatedly during the day.

Treasure your freedom from such difficulties.

[farts_mckensy]

The importance of my work is determined by the people paying me, not some dipshit on hacker news. And fortunately they value my time enough to allow for deep work hours. It's not that difficult.

Allowing for constant interruptions under the guise of "collaboration" costs companies money. If you're in a management situation, you should know that your attitude will lead to waste.