Is that locomotive to ferrari analogy ever correct! Given that locomotives have somewhat comparable acceleration to ferrari's (we are talking only a couple of minutes difference to reach 100mph), most of us know the actual ratio is far more extreme. In that light, still trying to decide if IM is a blessing or curse.

Although it was mentioned that the results may not be scientific, I can validate all ten points, for what it's worth.

Everything old is new again. Long, long ago, maybe in the 60's, IBM did a study on what tools to give developers to increase productivity.  After a long, exhaustive study, it was found that the best things to do to increase productivity was give the programmer a door and remove the phone.

The door so the programmer could close it and there would be fewer interruptions.  And get rid of the phone for the same reason.

The IBM study called the "locomotive" effect "a state of flow".  And more time was wasted if they had to get into and out of that state of flow a lot.

So basically they said it didn't make any difference what tools you give people if you keep interrupting them.

That is also why, once you get started in the morning, when you look up at the clock, it is lunch time already. (if you don't get interrupted)

As a second comment, I think the whole PC industry has slowly gone through the same learning curve we did on the mainframe way back then.  We are finally coming back to mainframe computers only now we call them "the cloud" and we have smart terminals instead of dumb terminals.  Although browsing the web almost makes the PC dumb.

I am reminded of a story my father, who worked for about 40 years for Owens Corning Fiberglas research lab, told.  There was a research group there that was studying something and did about 5 years of group research to find out something.  At the END they called a meeting of all the groups to reveal their findings.  After they were done with the presentation my father said, "I'm glad the result turned out that way.  Because that was the same way it turned out when WE did that research 20 years ago!"

A lot of times the knowledge is there, but people just don't ask.

Communication is another big problem, particularly in a big company.