Comment by camperman | Hacker News Reader

Comment by camperman | Hacker News Reader

"Flow is very important. Working in a quiet room not only removes unproductive context switching and frustrating distractions, it also promotes the joy of being totally engrossed in your task—a state often needed to keep all the complex interconnections in your head."

Couldn't agree more.

"However, flow necessarily requires isolation. Isolation from design discussions. Isolation from customer engagements. Isolation from iteration and feedback. Instead of continuously converging on what the customer finds compelling, you go forward alone."

Nonsense. Flow necessarily requires isolation when you are focused on a task. It does not exclude team interactions, design discussions or weekly (or even daily) customer interactions. The most productive team I ever saw had quiet individual offices for each programmer, a daily design and status meeting of 15 minutes and a weekly customer meeting.

"I know it’s romantic to think that one person can create an incredible product in isolation. If that’s what you believe, stick to reading romance novels, and stay the heck out of software development."

Also nonsense. Recent history is replete with counter-examples.

Exactly. Both exercise and sleep promote health. It's like he's arguing against exercise because gyms aren't conducive to sleeping.

I think the biggest problem is that the typical office environment and workflow is designed to promote discussion without much thought towards the impact it can have on flow. I'll often see the calendar littered with 30 - 60 minute meetings that could be much more efficiently clustered together.

No, he's arguing for setting aside time and space both for flow and for team interaction. Did you read the part about "team hallways"?

To be fair to the original article, the author does point out isolation is helpful 'when you are focused on a task':

"As for flow, it works best when there is a specific, narrowly scoped piece of code that must be written. For that work, being in a quiet place free from distraction is ideal. Just don’t stay isolated too long"

I don't see much to disagree with there. I think the point of contention is on what should be the default work environment: an open plan office with "concentration rooms" here and there or individual offices and occasional meetings. I don't believe there will be a definitive answer, it depends on team dynamics and company culture.

Fair enough.

"As for flow, it works best when there is a specific, narrowly scoped piece of code that must be written."

But this is also not necessarily true. A state of flow is very desirable when doing experimental or exploratory creative work of any kind, not just programming. If you're doing something you've never done before but it's not too far out of reach, then you can most definitely enter a state of flow. Too far out of reach and anxiety kills the state. Not challenging enough and you don't get absorbed enough to enter it in the first place.

‎Csiksczentmihalyi's book identifies eight major components of flow:

1. We confront tasks we have a chance of completing; 2. We must be able to concentrate on what we are doing; 3. The task has clear goals; 4. The task provides immediate feedback; 5. One acts with deep, but effortless involvement, that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life; 6. One exercises a sense of control over their actions; 7. Concern for the self disappears, yet, paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over; and 8. The sense of duration of time is altered.

I don't think I've ever got into the flow state when just banging out a specific, narrowly scoped piece of code. It's just grunt work. It has to be done sure, but for me personally, it doesn't provoke the loss of time or complete absorption that experimental or exploratory work does.

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