Right, the issue is that "modern" work still requires attention, but is often accompanied by an expectation for responsiveness and a wide array of demands on the worker's attention.
Nobody is saying "why aren't our production line employees very active on the #dogsofourworkplace slack channel?"
My thoughts, exactly. Unfortunately, I think it's not simply that constant alerts steal attention, but also that dependence on computers is also training us to not pay attention. The computer will tell us the problem and how to solve it, no thought required, a lot of the time. Therefore, we need to be even more alert than we used to (have to be), in order to spot the rare occasion that the computer is wrong, and apply thought and common sense. Additionally (for me at least), controlling the quality of the computer tends to be less fulfilling and less exciting work than actually solving problems myself, meaning I don't care as much about it and am not as attentive to it.
Trying to build an Antikythera mechanism but I keep being handed wax tablets notifying me about 4 people liking the murals my friend made about his visit to Corinth last month, and now my politically weird uncle has apparently added me to a group celebrating the thirty tyrants of athens.
My father in law (deceased) used to spend 8-10 hours a day doing woodworking art for his business, then several hours delivering things to customers each day as well. I asked him how it tool 8-10 hours to do 3-6 pieces when I had been watching and he finished each one in about 30 minutes (other than paint drying and stuff). He said that people were always talking to him, because his store and work area were basically right in the middle of town and he worked out front rather than inside because he had no workshop in the store. I hung out with him for a day and saw no less than a dozen different people stop by and have 10-15 minute conversations with him, and he couldn't do much work during that time.
That's a pretty useless story for HN, but seemed relevant to the topic at hand, and I like remembering my father in law and telling stories about him (I miss him considerably).
I wish my FIL was around to teach me, I hate tech work! It does seem common, and I think there's something about working with natural materials and holding something organic that appeals to me. Software isn't "real" as much as woodworking is. Sometimes it's hard to just build stuff that is deleted in several months, versus making a quality chair which will probably get use for hundreds of years. I have some wood furnishings in my current rental home that were built by the owner who built this whole house with is wife in the 50's and they are the most solid things we use on a daily basis.
Very little code will still be used a decade later. I have sincere doubts that much that I've produced will endure even half that long. Software is ephemeral. But as you pointed out, quality furniture can last for many decades or even centuries and still be as useful as the day it was built.
Modern work comes with modern distractions. All these emails and phone notifications ruin modern people from getting into flow states which require a lot of attention.
I believe that people enter the flow state much less today than before smartphones came along.
