The 400ms Threshold: Why Modern IDEs Sacrifice Developer Flow for Completeness
Published on 29.12.2025
The Precious Eyeblink
TLDR: Kent Beck revisits the 1982 Doherty Threshold research showing that computer response times above 400 milliseconds break user flow. Modern IDEs have unconsciously chosen completeness over speed, and Beck argues we should optimize test runners and tools for latency—showing partial results fast rather than complete results slowly.
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