Programmers is not the only profession that has a high cost of context switching. Scientists, lawyers, engineers, writers - pretty much anyone doing intellectual work would understand.

You forgot doctors and nurses.

Now let's look back at the list provided: -Scientists -lawyers -engineers -artists -doctors -nurses

And compare it to programmers and writers. The non-programmer/non-writer world think programmers "just play on the computer" all day. So I think GP is spot on, non-programmers don't get how interrupting flow is catastrophic to what we do.

The list is too long, really.

Artists too

"Non programmers won't get it"

Complete ignorance for what other jobs do.

Writing code is not so different from writing long reports. When I am writing a long report, I need to focus as well and do not want to be interrupted.

Programming is not the only job that requires deep thought and concentration.

You’re right, but… do you write long reports, all day, every day?

I write long reports for engagements following a significant amount of document review and research.

Again, it is silly to think that programming is the only profession that requires concentrated thought.

Of course that would be silly. Who is claiming that?