I was in an interview on Monday, and the tech lead and I were having a good giggle about that exact cartoon! I told him about The Headphones Rule[0], and he thought it was an awesome idea. Funny coincidence.
I wish that worked. I'm in an open plan office where I constantly need the headphone to drown out the noise all the other things happening (people talking to each other, marketing people making phone calls, people walking about, etc) so that'd mean I'd be constantly unapproachable. I'd actually like that, but I'm pretty sure my co-workers and employer wouldn't.
A friend works in an office where headphones are even banned because they create too much of a barrier to talk to a co-worker. I'd go absolutely crazy there in less than a week.
Dealing with interruptions and distractions while remaining focused on the problem at hand is a valuable skill that takes time and effort to hone.
Any hacker can write code while in a closed office, wearing headphones, shut off from the world. Great hackers can write code while E-mails come in, people drop by with questions, Julie over in BizDev is yacking on the phone with some vendor, and the PM is asking if you've filled out your TPS report this week.
Maybe this will become a new "zen" thing - calm and collected in the midst of chaos.
Though even though it might something that great programmers can do, they might be even more effective if they get to remove some of those distractions.
What if I don't want to be distracted by everything around me, but don't mind being interrupted if there is something they are wondering about? Then I might have to wear headphones with the usual volume, 'cause if I wear it half-way or something then I still get a bit distracted by everything around me.
It's like leaving your door halfway open to signal that someone can come in if they want. I might not mind having a visit, but I might mind hearing all the noise, or curious looks from people passing by through the corridor. Hence the 'busy' sign to hang on the doorknob, when needed.
He zoned out of the world around him and distracted himself with either the project he was working on prior, or just a stream of consciousness around his get-out-of-too-many-words tool of counting
