Getting work done in distracted world....
Why do you people buy noise cancelling headphones to use it in office? Simple answer will be to get work done. It is a polite way of saying do not disturb. You are hanging a virtual DO NOT DISTURB sign for all people in office who want to disturb you. It is like marking territory by hunting animals. Moment you put on a headset you have an invisible shield protecting you from all the distraction. How did we end up in this mess? Agile was supposed to be savior of software development. " Individuals and interactions over processes and tools" I think we are overdoing the interactions part of this. When manifesto stated interactions in was in a context. That context was for the scope of the product being developed. Probably at that time it was right because people were assigned cubicles. New generation of software programmers may not be able to visualize this. These people had work space which had good isolation from others. There was no instant messaging. If you wa...