If you are waiting for your computer, you are wasting time.
Humans can work around waiting. Computers can't. No matter what I do, it's my computer that is waiting for me most of the day. The occasional compilation run that takes a while I can wait: I use the time to ponder about my code, or looking for an answer to something I didn't quite get right, or just staring forward and getting a feel for the program I was writing. I might tinker with an Emacs buffer without saving so as to not interfere with the compilation. I often work better when compilations are slow: I realize I need to be sharper myself to justify another recompilation. This means fewer bugs and more thinking before writing.
For reference, I have a fairly new quad-core laptop with lots of memory but I'm working on a huge project that certainly takes a few minutes to compile, minimum. I'm still better off with a laptop instead of a more powerful desktop system because the mobility suits my living and coding habits better, so I'm intentionally volunteering for a perf hit.
Humans can work around waiting. Computers can't. No matter what I do, it's my computer that is waiting for me most of the day. The occasional compilation run that takes a while I can wait: I use the time to ponder about my code, or looking for an answer to something I didn't quite get right, or just staring forward and getting a feel for the program I was writing. I might tinker with an Emacs buffer without saving so as to not interfere with the compilation. I often work better when compilations are slow: I realize I need to be sharper myself to justify another recompilation. This means fewer bugs and more thinking before writing.
For reference, I have a fairly new quad-core laptop with lots of memory but I'm working on a huge project that certainly takes a few minutes to compile, minimum. I'm still better off with a laptop instead of a more powerful desktop system because the mobility suits my living and coding habits better, so I'm intentionally volunteering for a perf hit.