Comment by hinkley

30 minutes versus 60 is really an hour versus two.

Some coworkers and I noticed a long time ago that once you try to task switch while doing build/test automation steps, it always seems like you remember to come back and check about twice as long as the compile was supposed to take. 7+ turned into 15, 15 into a half hour.

And then one day it hit me that this is just Hofstadter’s Law. You think you have ten minutes so you start a ten minute task and it takes you twenty, or you get in a flow and forget to look until your senses tell you you’re forgetting something.

Cutting 10 minutes off a build really averages 20 minutes in saved time per cycle. Which matters a hell of a lot when you go from 4 to 5 cycles per 8 hour day.