I don’t think you have a choice to ignore interruptions. The very fact that you have to take your concentration and apply it somewhere else, even if it’s to decide whether you will allow yourself to be interrupted or not, results in broken concentration.

When there’s a Thunderstorm around you, well, it’s around everyone else too. It is generally targeted at a region rather than a person (lightning-struck golfers aside.) One can choose to acknowledge the Thunderstorm, admire its power and beauty, or not. One’s skills of concentration, God-given and/or learned, come into play, just as Scotch Drinker said.

But, when you’re in flow (a usage that Scotch Drinker gave us last night) and someone taps you on the shoulder, well, that is no Thunderstorm. It’s a lightning-strike that you can choose to ignore or acknowledge. I think most folk would acknowldege it, even if only to see if it a nerd or a hoochie mama. And then you are out of flow…damage done.

Scotch Drinker is right. These are two separate things.

I believe the real reason Scotch Drinker demurred was his first two choices of beer were not available, interrupted his Beer Flow, and that let the noise of pending Grass Mowing Need to intrude.