The Flow of Night. (note of why programmers work at night)

There’s magic in the night-time. The peace and quiet, the internal serenity … There’s just you, your work and an infinite abundance of time. You are alone.

Flow is a state of complete immersion in an activity, a state where the outside and inside world merge into one and the person is simply present.

Mihaly Csikszentmihaly - the father of flow research in psychology - describes flow as

Completely focused motivation. A single-minded immersion that represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in service of performing and learning.

....

Flow is marked by an intense, almost meditative, calm. No other thoughts can invade your brain than what pertains to the task at hand. Everything else ceases to exist.

But when things are hanging over your head, so to speak, achieving flow is nearly impossible for most people. The mental clarity and emotional calm just isn’t there.

If there’s something tugging at your brain, you might as well forget about flow.

...

Perhaps the biggest thing everyone’s got tugging on their brain is the anticipation of imminent distraction. You know something is going to happen in an hour or two. Sometimes it’s a big meeting, other times you have to be around to take a call - either way, it can be very distracting even if you do know when the distraction is going to happen.

... Cost of interuption

Warm caffeinated beverages go very well with this sort of activity. Making them wastes little time, but introduces an impetus to keep procrastinating until you’ve finished the cup.

We call this procrastination, but the term carries connotations that aren’t fully warranted. Don’t think of it as putting off work, it’s more like defragging one’s brain. Making sure there are no more lingering thoughts in there, no notifications left unclicked, no important questions left unanswered. ---> I find this interesting because I can see how knowing there's nothing there can really help. It can help you say, "there's nothing to check, I need to focus"

...

Programs are a conversation between programmer and computer.

The programmer’s job is breaking down a problem into understandable bits and explaining the solution to the computer in such a way it can be executed perfectly every time. ...

Every time you lose sight of the whole system you have to build it again like constructing a glass palace.

Once you understand the language, you have to arrange it in your mind so the space can be freely traversed, you can close your eyes and see how different parts of the system affect each other.

Only after this stage has been reached is a programmer fully effective. Only then can they have any chance of reaching flow because they don’t have to stop every five minutes to figure out how their code fits in the larger picture and whether it’s even doing what it’s supposed to.

When you interrupt a programmer, this glass palace can come crashing down in a shower of shattered glass. They have to start the whole process all over again and it’s going to take a while before they’re back to full steam.

from: https://leanpub.com/nightowls/read#leanpub-auto-about-flow

Tags: Deep Work