Computer programmers without computers

When I first started working as a programmer, I was surprised at how much my colleagues can sit at computers. Of course, the programmer needs to spend a significant amount of time sitting at the computer, but why do you need to spend 100% of the working day on the monitors? It seemed rather strange to me, because I had never worked in this mode. I always alternated thinking about some ideas outside the workplace and directly sitting at the computer.

I was even more puzzled when the network fell, which happened quite often. Half worked on a PC under Windows, the other on Unix workstations. When the network fell, the PC owners continued to work because they had local work environments.

At this time, the unixoids crowded in the hall until the network rose again, or even went home, if this was not expected in the near future. They had computers in place, but they were mostly used as terminals for connecting to servers. That is, when the network fell, the unixoids remained without computers. All agreed that this meant that the work could not be continued. It seems strange to me.

At that time, I was able to program, but I knew almost nothing about professional software development. Most of my ideas were naive. But looking back, it seems to me that I was right in one thing: programmers should more often think with their heads, moving away from the computer. Unfortunately, in most cases we do it last .