#19a: The perils of distraction on productivity.
Software development is a creative field, and so the engineers, designers, and product managers whose creative output comprise most of their work depend greatly on the quality of their work time.
An environment of frequent overtime may be caused by unrealistic delivery deadlines — but it may also be symptomatic of a highly distracted environment.
An engineer who faces repeated interruption spends most of her work time shallowly (as opposed to doing deep work); she frequently incurs the immersion cost of re-entering a state of flow. This results in lower productivity, greater cost to create a new product, and a diminished at-work experience contributing to growing disengagement.