RE: Handling developers, "the zone" and other myths

["Lisa Wright" <liwright -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

You're right of course Emily, in a certain sense. Most jobs do to some
extent require concentration. Unfortunately for those who would claim
"the zone," most jobs also require interaction and contribution. The
problem that I suspect many of us have encountered is that software
developers throw up "the zone" as a wall to block out interaction with
others, even when there is a legitimate need for interaction. They
assume an air of "oh, I can't be bothered because I'm doing _important
things_ that require concentration." Then they bitch and moan when
things aren't done the way they think they should be done, when the
truth is they won't pay attention to the outside world for 5 minutes and
have no clue. Developers themselves provide ample evidence of this
attitude in the comments in the discussion linked to below. "Don't
bother me." "How dare you not ask my opinion????!"

Granted, this is by no means universal. I've worked with some wonderful
developers who know how to work with others and who understand that
there are a whole host of business/world issues that affect the
decisions that drive what the developers are asked to do. I've also
encountered programmers who have an attitude, and honestly they
contributed nothing but contentiousness, dissent, and strife to the
workplace.

Lisa 

-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of Emily Berk
Subject: Re: Handling developers, "the zone" and other myths

<snip>

On Mon, May 27, 2002, Bruce Byfield wrote:
>> http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/04/157205&mode=nested&;
>> tid=98
>> 
>> reviews a book that supports the notion about the importance of "the
>> zone." Equally interesting are the comments from the techie crowd who

>> read the site, which, with some exceptions, tend to question the
whole 
>> idea of treating developers specially, as well as the idea of the
zone....

Why would you doubt that certain people doing certain jobs at certain
times need to NOT be interrupted?

Let me put this another way:  If your heart surgeon took a personal call
on a cell phone during YOUR triple bypass and something went wrong
during the operation, wouldn't you use this information in your
malpractice law suit?

Call it the Zone or call it what you want, but sometimes a person just
really does need to focus on what she is doing.
</snip>



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