Right?

Like...one time I was deep in the mental flow, headphones on playing some nice orchestrated video game music. Totally entranced. Someone came up and tapped me on my shoulder and I damn near shit myself.

I mean people normally wave in your line of sight then actually touch you but yes.... It's a super quick way to resolve an issue and get everyone back on track. Especially as I've gotten more and more senior over my career and a lot of your work output is making sure the rest of the team can function effectively.

Only when I was really junior did heads down code all day happen.

I just don't understand why it's physical rather than verbal. You have to talk to solve the problem anyways right? Isn't that the point of being colocated?

Well, in my circumstances, headphones are on during focused work because I don't want to listen to small talk or a sales phone call or ... etc

Oh, right... man, am I glad not to be in an office. I love having total control over my auditory environment.

Yes if me helping on several different tasks is more beneficial than isolating and working on one.