WEBVTT 00:00.350 --> 00:01.010 A few times. 00:01.010 --> 00:02.360 I've talked about the zone. 00:02.360 --> 00:03.440 What is that exactly? 00:03.440 --> 00:04.670 It's hard to describe. 00:04.700 --> 00:08.810 Your most productive engineers are able to get into this state where they can just tune out the whole 00:08.810 --> 00:13.100 world and focus exclusively on what they're building, on what they're creating. 00:13.100 --> 00:14.900 This is a hyper productive state. 00:14.900 --> 00:20.030 It's hugely valuable to the company and to the productivity of the people who are able to achieve it. 00:20.060 --> 00:24.080 You've often heard that the best engineers in a company are ten times more effective than the other 00:24.080 --> 00:24.680 ones. 00:24.680 --> 00:28.520 I bet you those are the ones that are very skilled at getting into that flow state. 00:28.700 --> 00:31.250 It time just moves differently when you're in this state. 00:31.250 --> 00:32.870 I can do it myself. 00:32.900 --> 00:37.550 It's weird, you know, It really feels like you're experiencing the universe in a different way, you 00:37.550 --> 00:40.550 know, without any weird substances involved. 00:40.550 --> 00:42.740 So but it's an incredibly powerful thing. 00:42.740 --> 00:44.090 You don't want to disturb this. 00:44.120 --> 00:45.980 You know, people call it focused state. 00:46.010 --> 00:46.970 They call it the zone. 00:46.970 --> 00:48.170 There's different words for it. 00:48.170 --> 00:53.120 But fundamentally, it's a state that an engineer can get into when they're in a deeply focused state 00:53.120 --> 00:58.370 of very productive creativity, a very productive building of something. 00:58.370 --> 00:58.790 Right? 00:58.820 --> 00:59.970 Not everybody can do it. 00:59.970 --> 01:01.590 Not everyone can do this on demand. 01:01.590 --> 01:07.320 And a lot of people who can't do it are mystified at how other people who can do it are so productive. 01:07.350 --> 01:09.450 You know, I've encountered this myself. 01:09.720 --> 01:11.900 People will be like, Frank, how do you get so much stuff done? 01:11.910 --> 01:16.110 It's just because I can enter this state at will, having that experience in engineering from a very 01:16.110 --> 01:16.980 young age. 01:16.980 --> 01:18.470 So don't mess with it, right? 01:18.480 --> 01:21.780 Your communication style can intrude on the zone. 01:21.810 --> 01:22.830 Don't go there. 01:22.830 --> 01:25.110 Any sort of distraction is the enemy of the zone. 01:25.110 --> 01:29.070 Once you yank someone out of the zone, first of all, it's going to be very disconcerting for them 01:29.070 --> 01:32.130 because you're suddenly yanking them back into reality. 01:32.130 --> 01:35.580 If it were, this can be a very shock to the system. 01:35.580 --> 01:39.570 You know, if someone looks at you like, ah, when you talk to them, it's not because they're scared 01:39.570 --> 01:40.500 of you or offended by you. 01:40.500 --> 01:42.120 It's because you yank them out of the zone. 01:42.120 --> 01:46.410 And if they feel if they seem a little bit frustrated by that, it's because you just disturbed their 01:46.410 --> 01:47.700 state of productivity. 01:47.700 --> 01:49.830 And it better be for a pretty good reason. 01:49.830 --> 01:50.190 Right. 01:50.190 --> 01:53.580 Because it's not it's not easy to get back into that state all the time. 01:54.330 --> 01:57.510 Universal signal someone has their headphones on. 01:57.510 --> 01:58.440 It means don't bug them. 01:58.440 --> 01:59.370 So respect that. 01:59.700 --> 02:03.540 If you see somebody who's in the zone, they seem deeply focused on something. 02:03.540 --> 02:04.800 They've got the headphones on. 02:04.800 --> 02:06.780 That's them saying, Don't bug me, right? 02:06.780 --> 02:12.240 So go back to your desk, write them an email, send a slack message, whatever it is, some sort of 02:12.240 --> 02:18.240 asynchronous communication that they can deal with when they're at a good breaking point to shift gears 02:18.240 --> 02:19.650 back into the real world. 02:20.870 --> 02:23.750 It can be very difficult to get back into that zone once you're pulled out of it. 02:23.750 --> 02:29.090 So please respect the the amount of time you're costing somebody and the organization. 02:29.090 --> 02:33.540 Every time you do that, walk up to some engineer and say, Hey, how's it going? 02:33.560 --> 02:34.540 That has a huge cut. 02:34.640 --> 02:36.800 It just costs that person a half an hour at least. 02:36.830 --> 02:41.090 Again, asynchronous communication is always going to be preferred for that reason. 02:41.120 --> 02:43.940 Not everything can be done that way, but at least schedule it. 02:43.940 --> 02:44.590 Okay. 02:44.600 --> 02:48.650 Now if you do disturb someone in that state, don't be offended if they flinch. 02:48.680 --> 02:50.780 If they look shocked, it's not then personal. 02:50.780 --> 02:53.360 It's just because you yanked them out of the state. 02:53.360 --> 02:55.340 And it can be very jarring to the system. 02:55.400 --> 02:58.670 If you do need to talk to someone in person, do it offline. 02:58.670 --> 03:02.450 And if it has to be a face to face meeting, at least try to schedule that meeting at a time that's 03:02.450 --> 03:03.500 not going to disturb them. 03:03.530 --> 03:07.580 Do it right after lunch or something like that, right at the end of the day where it's not going to 03:07.580 --> 03:11.120 disturb their ability to get back into that state and be productive again.