There are a couple of problems with this advice, in my experience.
First, is that when I take that approach I invariably wind up with two dozen half-started projects and do very little to build up long-term skills. There are so many things that I love, if I stopped every time I hit a dip to try something else, I'd never finish anything. Plus, one of the things I love is the sense of satisfaction of completing something and doing it well-- especially if I have made a commitment to someone. If rewards are too far off to affect me emotionally, and only my rational brain knows they will be worth it in the end, then I need other way to help stay focused.
The second issue is that there are good things in life that you can't do 'in the zone.' Meeting new people, for example, doesn't require the meditative attention that hacking does. So finding yourself outside the zone for significant periods of time is rather common and not a bad thing. One needs some way to keep that from derailing productivity, however.
First, is that when I take that approach I invariably wind up with two dozen half-started projects and do very little to build up long-term skills. There are so many things that I love, if I stopped every time I hit a dip to try something else, I'd never finish anything. Plus, one of the things I love is the sense of satisfaction of completing something and doing it well-- especially if I have made a commitment to someone. If rewards are too far off to affect me emotionally, and only my rational brain knows they will be worth it in the end, then I need other way to help stay focused.
The second issue is that there are good things in life that you can't do 'in the zone.' Meeting new people, for example, doesn't require the meditative attention that hacking does. So finding yourself outside the zone for significant periods of time is rather common and not a bad thing. One needs some way to keep that from derailing productivity, however.