Interesting article on Code Climber about why working at night can seem so much more productive. I think he’s nailed the most important issues (e.g., No interruptions!) — though he’s missed one of my faves: if I’m up late working, it’s important to me to get it done, and since I’m not going to sleep until it is done, I’m harder to distract. (During the day, Google Reader is taking away from the man. At night, it’s taking away from me!)
Reminds me of Don Knuth’s arguments about why he doesn’t use email. He says that most the work he cares about requires long periods of concentration, and that email distracts him from the concentration he needs. It’s interesting that for me lots of the work I care about the most requires lots of concentration — but that I still use IM, email, &c. Perhaps these tools help me stay connected to my network, and perhaps my most important jobs are related to being connected to that network. It would be interesting to see what sort of work would get done if we separated from that network for a while, and did more solo work. The productivity would be very different. Better? Worse?
John
