[felideon]

Great, except your performance evaluation is done individually. Try to explain to your manager that the QA asks you dumb questions incessantly, interrupting any attempt to remain or even begin to be "in the zone".

Non-programmers generally never know how to read whether it is a good time to interrupt or not, unless it's obvious you're just reading an article or something.

[collyw]

I complained about having too many meeting and other distractions to get any coding done recently. Result was a meeting about it (no joke). We discussed it asked people not to interrupt, but two weeks later is is back to the same.

[nthj]

> unless it's obvious you're just reading an article or something.

Generally agree with you, although just because I'm reading an article doesn't mean it's a good time to ask me a question. Right now, my brain is working on a weird problem while my tests run and I browse HN. I look like I'm goofing off, but I still wouldn't appreciate a context switch to another problem.

The polite question if you must interrupt a programmer is “Would now be a good time for a context switch?”

[pitt1980]

I find it interesting that open offices are too distracting

what would be the reaction if the internet was cut off because that was too distracting?