Telecommuting

[Dirk Koopman]

On 12/12/11 10:13, David Cantrell wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 11:06:14PM +0000, ian docherty wrote:
>
>> The small 'ping' of an IRC is less disruptive than a tap on the
>> shoulder and you can complete your current work before giving it, and
>> your co-developer, your full attention.
>
> Doesn't work so well when the IRC window is buried under twenty other
> windows because you're actually *working*.

Clearly, there is a priority mismatch here somewhere. Especially as my 
window manager has both an "always on top" as well as an "always below" 
tag for windows. Mind you, I am not certain what use the second of those 
is...

But (but) there is this meme being punted around at the moment that 
says: "all internal email is bad and should be banned" because "studies 
show" that people spend (more than) 20% of their time processing what 
turn out to be useless email. Properly organised IRC does seem like a 
reasonable alternative.

Being constantly interrupted is one of the programmers bugbears. 
Especially as I argue that this probably wastes even more time than 
dealing with email. It isn't just the time the interruption takes, but 
also the time lost whilst one gets back "into" whatever one might have 
been doing.

And then there is the "this is a crisis, I need immediate help" 
syndrome. The more successful one is at solving problems, the more one 
is likely to be dragged from pillar to post solving other peoples 
(usually trivial) problems - or worse - being loaded with more problems 
that one can possible resolve satisfactorily, by more "managers" than 
one knew existed. This has recently caused a good friend to have a 
breakdown.

Decent management is hard to find.

Dirk