Every programmer knows about the flow. They know about it even if they don’t know the word “flow”. Sadly, most other people are not familiar with the concept. Especially members of the management class. This cartoon captures the idea perfectly.
But there’s a practical matter. What should a programmer do about the clueless manager (or colleagues) who think nothing of toppling the carefully constructed tower of cause and effect?
Erik Dietrich has an answer. The TL;DR is that you should present your manager with a list of numbers and offer to buy lunch if he can add them up in his head within 30 seconds. Once he starts, you interrupt him with random questions and observations until he gives up in despair.
It’s a delightful idea and seems attractive but I’m not sure it would work. The problem with the type of interrupter we’re talking about is that they think whatever they imagine their current problem is, it’s special so the usual rules don’t apply. That’s true even if their current problem is, “when do you think you’ll complete that task I asked you to do.”
Still, it’s an amusing idea and worth a read even if you probably wouldn’t use it yourself. The hard truth, though, is that the only real solution is probably working late where there’s no one around to bother you. Perhaps working from home will be the ultimate solution.