This is uncharitable to the point of seeming like a deliberate misread.
The bathroom anecdote is just a memorable illustration of Carmack's mindset: only work counts as work. Neither Carmack nor the author thinks you should avoid the bathroom or feel bad about pissing.
This is a self-aware blog post of a guy who worked with John Carmack and was able to use that to honestly assess his own productivity, and the amount of time he wasn't focused.
Work count as work ?!? Soooo, anacdote time. I had this boss who walked into my office and saw me sitting in front of my computer, reading the screen and not typing. He asked me: "what are you doing?" I said: "thinking about how to solve problem X." he said: "okay, but why aren't you typing?!?!" For him it was working as a software engineer is only when you type.....
The bathroom anecdote is just a memorable illustration of Carmack's mindset: only work counts as work. Neither Carmack nor the author thinks you should avoid the bathroom or feel bad about pissing.
This is a self-aware blog post of a guy who worked with John Carmack and was able to use that to honestly assess his own productivity, and the amount of time he wasn't focused.