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Comment by cconcepts | Hacker News Reader

The notion that loneliness is the biggest distraction is a revelation to me. I have worked from home for 12years but didn't recognise this as an issue I face until now.

Sometimes I just crave talking with someone about what I am working on. If I am designing something I can't just call the people that do fabrication on my team because they are busy working on the last thing I designed. We're so asynch and efficient that I hardly ever talk with anyone about my task at hand so I spend a lot of time staring at the wall above my screen, second-guessing myself because I can't thrash out decisions with another mind.

Then I end up browsing HN for a distracting but familiar endorphin hit....

View on HN

I'm really glad I moved into a large highrise before all of this.

Every morning I go to the roof and get some coffee/hot chocolate as part of a morning "routine" which seems to be really important for productivity. I usually see a few people on the way there which I think does a lot for my mental health.

That's ... oddly specific. Do you live in my building?

Possibly, do you live in VA?

yes

This worries me. Not just because it sounds like you're lonely or need some help, but because we're moving into a future that will see more people working from home.

What about your working environment or current way of operating could resolve this issue for you? Could just having a like minded Discord server with other people you can talk to be enough (even if it's text based)?

My door is open if you want to chat.

Thats kind. My comment probably sounds more glib than it should but I was trying to draw attention to the issue of isolated work in general. I have plenty of people around me a lot. I just dont get to talk through work challenges with them so I think it leads to distraction like the article suggests

Maybe try and find someone who is willing to just share presence with you via conf? My coworker and I often just remain in conf while continuing to work and basically just hear the other person typing. It helps a bit

interesting suggestion. If the objective is to minimise distraction, is being in constant conference not distracting?

We're probably less productive in these confs, but are overall more content and have shorter response cycles if problems come up so it really evens out and puts less strain on us mentally. We're also not really talking allthe time. it's weird, but the presence of someone else (even if they're just typing) has an overall positive effect on me.

Programmers have a wonderful solution that builds on shared presence -reducing loneliness- while enhancing focus. By using a shared screen for WFH, pair programming seems an ideal fit for the current situation. It also allows for expensing a nice gaming headset.

> Sometimes I just crave talking with someone about what I am working on.

This is how I do my best problem-solving. Recently my dog has been listening to me talk through my thought-process and work out the order of attack for implementation but this is one of the few instances where a dog just doesn’t hold a candle to a human. Even a person who knows nothing at all about what I’m working on can be a huge help to talk things through.

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