The Tomorrow Lab’s Derek Johnson writes one of the smartest pieces I’ve read on why sudden interruptions (or last minute, poorly planned meetings) can wreck such havoc on a developer’s workflow:
Developers don’t wear headphones because we enjoy music more than anyone else, it’s because headphones shut everything out and give us the mental space we need to build a very complicated model…
…If you’re an interrupter and you get a terser response than you might have expected please don’t take it personally. We’re just aware of the model starting to loosen at the more precarious points and are getting frantic about the need to get back at work.