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Comment by gst | Hacker News Reader

While I haven't used Google Glass yet, I can't imagine being productive (or being able to relax) while using it. I usually try to disable as many potential distractions as possible when working. I don't have mail notifications, I don't have chat notifications, I don't even have a clock that shows the time on my desktop. I'm way more productive when handling those things on my own schedule (e.g., batched handling of email every few hours).

Using something like Google Glass would probably drive me crazy. I wonder how (and if) Google Glass users can get productive work done. Do you wear Glass while you do things such as coding?

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It's designed to be out of your way, when you get a message for example it plays a soft chime that you can hear but nothing pops up. For something to come up you either have to tap it or tilt your head to see what the notification is. With your phone you'd have to take it out, unlock, open the app that made the noise, and put it away. The interface is quite streamlined since it is intended for quick notifications. Of course anything that notifies you of something could be distracting but since it only does so for high priority emails and in a way that's easy to ignore I don't think it is. In your case though, if you specifically don't want anything to interrupt you while coding then I'd just say don't use it while doing that? My personal style while coding is more event based (short time intervals per-task), I regularly pop between different projects and try to keep everything busy all at once (e.g., cluster going full tilt, 3d printer chugging away, teams tasked with work). Glass works well for me, I can triage emails by lifting my head up when I hear the chime without moving my hands from the keyboard while typing. Everyone has their own personal style that fits with the type of work they do and how they like doing it.

Well, I've got the same idea about people who acknowledge every bleep and buzz their phone gives. I'd say it's the same thing, and notifications on the thing can be acknowledged or ignored.

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