Personally, I hate Aeron chairs with a passion. Obviously, the overall point here is to keep developers happy, so I'd presume FogCreek allows developers to opt for different/better chairs. I just don't understand why these are considered the pinnacle of comfort. Is it just me? Am I the only person who finds everything about them to hideously uncomfortable, from the jabby knife in the back lumbar support to the circul…
The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One
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Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One
#22Waiting for the next post: Next: the real cost of private offices. You should include the cost of effective insulation/sound-proofing. (I've seen/heard it done reasonably well with expanding foam during wall construction.) P.S. Hey, folks, the original author, Rich Armstrong (richarmstrong), actually replied in a response this comment, but you killed it off -- it's dead, now. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28687…
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't like private offices. It just seems like a separation between myself and the rest of the team. I actually like open seating arrangements. When I need some serious concentration and can tolerate no distractions, a solid pair of noise-canceling headphones does the trick.
Actually, to some extent I think I'm simply more aware of the distraction. I recall a classmate's chemistry grades improving significantly after I convinced him to turn off his stereo while he was studying.
People always wonder how I see the things that they missed. (And I get that a lot.) Unfortunately, many seem completely unwilling to accept this aspect of the possible answer.
Nonetheless, if it works for you, it works. I just wish the current, open space dominant culture would be more accepting of my explanation of what works for me.
[1] To the contrary, I seem to be the one who ends up with connections throughout an organization, although they tend to focus on those who have a bit more depth. (I'm not much for the "schmoozing" crowd and superficial conversation -- I absolutely do not care about the latest Adam Sandler movie.)
Contrary to many around me, I'll end up knowing people across divisions, and from HQ down to the plant production floor. Those of us who "get stuff done" tend to find each other, and to rely on each other when the bureaucracy is demanding the impossible.
Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One
#23How many dev shops still give everyone workstations? Our company is entirely on laptops and I don't know a single person here that wants a workstation.
Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One
#24Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One
#25Waiting for the next post: Next: the real cost of private offices. You should include the cost of effective insulation/sound-proofing. (I've seen/heard it done reasonably well with expanding foam during wall construction.) P.S. Hey, folks, the original author, Rich Armstrong (richarmstrong), actually replied in a response this comment, but you killed it off -- it's dead, now. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28687…
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't like private offices. It just seems like a separation between myself and the rest of the team. I actually like open seating arrangements. When I need some serious concentration and can tolerate no distractions, a solid pair of noise-canceling headphones does the trick.
Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One
#26Waiting for the next post: Next: the real cost of private offices. You should include the cost of effective insulation/sound-proofing. (I've seen/heard it done reasonably well with expanding foam during wall construction.) P.S. Hey, folks, the original author, Rich Armstrong (richarmstrong), actually replied in a response this comment, but you killed it off -- it's dead, now. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28687…
My cost was under $100: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=sennheise...
Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One
#27I had no idea that some people like to code standing up; why is this? (Genuine curiosity, someone enlighten me please :))
Sitting for a very long time is bad for you. It causes increased chance of death, causes your back to hurt, makes you fatter, and lets your energy level go down after hours of doing it. It's not so much the "coding" part as the "sitting at a desk for 10+ hours a day" part that makes standing desks so attractive to programmers. http://pressroom.cancer.org/index.php?s=43&item=257 http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/article…
Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One
#28Waiting for the next post: Next: the real cost of private offices. You should include the cost of effective insulation/sound-proofing. (I've seen/heard it done reasonably well with expanding foam during wall construction.) P.S. Hey, folks, the original author, Rich Armstrong (richarmstrong), actually replied in a response this comment, but you killed it off -- it's dead, now. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28687…
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't like private offices. It just seems like a separation between myself and the rest of the team. I actually like open seating arrangements. When I need some serious concentration and can tolerate no distractions, a solid pair of noise-canceling headphones does the trick.
An office on the other hand means that no coworkers can distract me, unless it's intentional
Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One
#29I had no idea that some people like to code standing up; why is this? (Genuine curiosity, someone enlighten me please :))
There is a lot of discussions about this on Hacker News and generally people who work standing are happy about it. See eg http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2828948 For more http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=sta...
Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One
#30How many dev shops still give everyone workstations? Our company is entirely on laptops and I don't know a single person here that wants a workstation.
(I do also have a desktop. I don't know if the monitor is plugged in - I do everything on it via command line. It's handy for VMs, as other people mentioned, and other semi-work-related things.)