https://blog.nuclino.com/makers-don-t-let-yourself-be-forced-into-the-manager-schedule In Masters of Doom , a book about the game development company id Software and its influence on popular culture, David Kushner reflected on the unconventional working style of the company's ace coder, John Carmack. To increase his productivity and find a break from distraction while working on his breakthrough Quake engine , Carmack adopted an aggressive tactic – he began gradually shifting the start of his workday. Eventually, he was starting his programming in the evening and finishing just before dawn. These uninterrupted stretches of silence, isolation, and deep work allowed Carmack to reinvent gaming with the world's first lightning-fast 3D game engine. A tale of two schedules While Carmack's schedule may have made it harder for the rest of his team to reach him at times, the value he produced while working at his full cognitive capacity far outweighed that inconvenience