Re: How to fend off a tech writer

[puffwriter -at- darksleep -dot- com]

On Thu, May 09, 2002 at 03:32:09PM -0400, CHRISTINE ANAMEIER wrote:

> I can understand that one, I think. If you drop in on developers or
> call them, you're breaking their train of thought, and it'll take
> them awhile to get back into what they were doing, even if all they
> do is stop and say "Not now. Later."

     This is, indeed, true.  As a developer, I'm really aware of this;
it's extremely hard to manage a project and develop at the same time,
because project management is so interrupt-driven and development is
so flow-driven.

     There's even an etiquette built around this:

"Some aspects of hacker etiquette will appear quite odd to an observer
 unaware of the high value placed on hack mode. For example, if someone
 appears at your door, it is perfectly okay to hold up a hand (without
 turning one's eyes away from the screen) to avoid being
 interrupted. One may read, type, and interact with the computer for
 quite some time before further acknowledging the other's presence (of
 course, he or she is reciprocally free to leave without a word). The
 understanding is that you might be in hack mode with a lot of delicate
 state (sense 2) in your head, and you dare not swap that context out
 until you have reached a good point to pause. See also juggling eggs."

  -- http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/hack-mode.html

     The trick is to not make the interrupt-query itself an
interruption.  I once had a boss who was amazingly good at rolling in,
glancing over my shoulder, grabbing a mint from the penguin mints tin
(he was in the process of quitting tobacco) and rolling out without
derailing me.  Of course, it helped that I had an immense amount of
trust in him, so I never worried that he was "checking up on me".

     To turn this around, the "right" way to interrupt somebody is to
quietly drift up to the door, into their field of vision, see if they
appear to be immersed or not, and decide to either A) hang around
until they realize you're there for a reason and they come to a good
stopping point or B) go away and come back later / send them email /
leave a post-it note.  

> Joel Spolsky has some interesting comments about how knowledge
> workers (including writers and programmers) tend to be most
> productive when they're "in the zone," in a state of absolute
> concentration. By his account, it takes about 15 minutes to get into
> the zone if you've been knocked out of it, and that's if you're not
> so worn out that you spend the rest of the day spinning your wheels.

     To go to the source of this idea, pick up a copy of DeMarco &
Lister's _Peopleware_:

http://www.tatteredcover.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp?s=showproduct&isbn=0932633439

     Here's the relevant quote:

"During single-minded work-time, people are ideally in a state that
 psychologists call "flow." Flow is a condition of deep, nearly
 meditative involvement. In this state, there is a gentle sense of
 euphoria, and one is largely unaware of the passage of time: "I began
 to work. I looked up, and three hours had passed." There is no
 consciousness of effort; the work just seems to, well, flow. You've
 been in this state often, so we don't have to describe it to you.

 Not all work roles require that you attain a state of flow in order to
 be productive, but for anyone involved in engineering, design,
 development, writing, or like tasks, flow is a must. These are
 high-momentum tasks. It's only when you're in flow that the work goes
 well. Unfortunately, you can't turn on flow like a switch. It takes a
 slow descent into the subject, requiring fifteen minutes or more of
 concentration before the state is locked in. During this immersion
 period, you are particularly susceptible to noise and interruption. A
 disruptive environment can make it difficult or impossible to attain
 flow.

 Once locked in, the state can be broken by an interruption that is
 focused on you (your phone, for instance) or by insistent noise
 ("Attention! Paging Paul Portulaca. Will Paul Portulaca please call
 extension ..."). Each time you're interrupted, you require an
 additional immersion period to get back into flow. During this
 immersion period, you're not really doing work.

 If the average incoming phone call takes five minutes and your
 reimmersion period is fifteen minutes, the total cost of that call in
 flow time (work time) lost is twenty minutes. A dozen phone calls use
 up half a day. A dozen other interruptions and the rest of the work
 day is gone. This is what guarantees, "You never get anything done
 around here between 9 and 5."

     Boy, do I know how that feels... this is why I end up on a
sliding schedule, staying later and later to get things done, getting
in later and later the next morning, and hence staying later and
later...

     I've been wanting, for years, to try doing it in reverse; get in
at 5am, get a good solid several hours of work done before the rest of
the company shows up, leave the office at 2 or 3pm.  Unfortunately,
I've never managed to get started on that schedule...  A friend is
doing it, by the simple expedient of "if it's already late, stay up
later and go in at 5am and be tired", (also known as "change phase the
hard way" - http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/phase.html).

steven J. Owens
puff -at- darksleep -dot- com


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