Having been a developer of software for .. quite a while, I know from personal experience that 'flow' is a real thing -- I'm very productive when I'm lucky enough to have gotten into the 'flow', and I'm very frustrated when someone or something interrupts that 'flow'.

Interestingly, my team lead, who's a great guy and a terrific developer, started using this 'pomodoro' technique to get stuff done. I tried that for a while, but stopping work after 25 minutes to take a breather wasn't working for me -- I'd rather go until I needed coffee, the men's room, or until I'd gotten to a good breaking off point.

I'm sure the pomodoro's good for something -- but it doesn't help me any doing software development.

Excellent quotes, BTW. :)