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The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

blog.fogcreek.com

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Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#81

Post by calcnerd256 »

DannoHung wrote: post #61
spolsky wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the way people on the Internet always find a way to misinterpret every post in the worst possible way, no matter how little sense they make. After reading a detailed article about how we spend over $5000 to make sure our developers are comfortable at work, do you really think that we then CHAIN them to an Aeron chair and REQUIRE that they use 30" monitors even if they prefer sitting cross-legged on the floor w…

Joel, let me introduce to a wonderful phrase: Haters gonna hate.

People who abuse that phrase probably don't improve as quickly as people who use it sparingly.

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#82

Post by gte910h »

edw519 wrote: post #64

======================== | Interesting | Boring | | Work | Work | ================================== | Nice || Heaven | Read | | Office || | HN. | |--------||-------------+--------| | Bad || No one | Kill | | Office || cares. | me. | ==================================

I disagree. I've had jobs where I can't think because the building is too hot, even though the work was interesting, etc.

Neither of these lines are binary either. I've been on projects which were kinda, but not really interesting, etc.

Lastly, your health makes that a much bigger deal. Your back starts hurting, you want a solution, which may entail a job change.

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#83

Post by rickmb »

msluyter wrote: post #12

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…

Aeron chairs are outdated. Big ergonomic advances have been made since it's inception. On major drawback is that an Aeron needs to be properly fitted (comes in different sizes) and adjusted. And even then it still won't work for some people.

There are better chairs out there these days (including Miller's own Embody mentioned in the article). And most of them are a bit cheaper too.

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#84

Post by rickmb »

nandemo wrote: post #69
kenjackson wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't do serious dev work on a laptop. Too underpowered. Everyone here gets a laptop, but it's for working in bed, or on the road, at your child's birth, etc... But for day to day dev work, a high-end workstation is a fair bit more productive. At least for the type of dev work we do.

For me the main problem with laptops is the bad ergonomics.

An external keyboard, monitor and mouse. In which way does the ergonomics differ from a fixed workstation?

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#85

Post by cake »

wheels wrote: post #32

What I always find a little bit suspect about these posts – especially from FogCreek – is that it's really, "The Price of Dev Happiness As Long As You Define Happiness The Way Your Boss (Me) Does". I prefer sitting cross-legged with a 13" laptop on a mat on the floor. I've had most of the things mentioned in the article and prefer my mat on the floor, thank you very much. But I'm just a random example. More of what I…

I prefer sitting cross-legged with a 13" laptop on a mat on the floor.

Somehow that's almost how I prefer to work too, but it's sort of impossible to have this setup in a professional environment.

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#86

Post by RyanGWU82 »

JimmyL wrote: post #49

An old company of mine had Nightingale CXOs ( http://www.nightingalechairs.com/cxo_home.html ) as the standard issue developer chair. I remember the first few days I was there, not really getting it - the thing is this complex-looking chair that you'd think would be infinitely comfortable, and mine...wasn't. And then around day three, just as I was finishing all my HR stuff and the get-to-know-you tours (and starting…

I've had a Nightingale CXO for about 5 years and I love it. I went to the store intending to buy an Aeron, but I'm glad I considered some other models that weren't quite as trendy. Wish I had one at work too!

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#87

Post by xiaomai »

damoncali wrote: post #74
spolsky wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some corrections: (1) it doesn't matter what I believe in. We now have telecommuters at both Stack Exchange and Fog Creek and for the right individual, it's fine. (2) this doesn't follow. Do you really think we give people desktop computers simply to make it impossible for them to work from home? That's silly. Anyway, the telecommuters we do have almost exclusively use desktop computers. You know why? Because once yo…

Because once you've programmed on a 30" monitor, you'll never go back to programming on a laptop. Total sidebar, but I actually have found 30" to be too big. I could not get my neck to stop hurting from trying to use the whole screen, and wound up using the innermost 23-24". So I ditched it for a 23" monitor. Was I doing something wrong? I really wanted to like the 30", but I just couldn't get it to work without putt…

I'm on a 24", so I can't speak from experience. It sounds like you maybe just needed to sit further away from the monitor though (some desks obviously wouldn't permit this).

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#89

Post by rokhayakebe »

spolsky wrote: post #45
wheels wrote: post #32

What I always find a little bit suspect about these posts – especially from FogCreek – is that it's really, "The Price of Dev Happiness As Long As You Define Happiness The Way Your Boss (Me) Does". I prefer sitting cross-legged with a 13" laptop on a mat on the floor. I've had most of the things mentioned in the article and prefer my mat on the floor, thank you very much. But I'm just a random example. More of what I…

I love the way people on the Internet always find a way to misinterpret every post in the worst possible way, no matter how little sense they make. After reading a detailed article about how we spend over $5000 to make sure our developers are comfortable at work, do you really think that we then CHAIN them to an Aeron chair and REQUIRE that they use 30" monitors even if they prefer sitting cross-legged on the floor w…

I agree, but you've clearly had one cup of coffee too much.

Re: The Price of (Dev) Happiness: Part One

#90

Post by nkurz »

I find it disturbing that the author of this piece is having his on-topic responses censored:

  richarmstrong 5 hours ago | link [dead]  
  You are not alone. I wrote that blog post while sitting on 
  a Humanscale Freedom Saddle Seat stool ($300). I 
  considered getting into it about Aerons, but thought 
  better of it.
  Plenty of folks here dislike them, too, and have the 
  choice of any chair they want us to order.
	
  richarmstrong 5 hours ago | link [dead]
  I'd love to do that, but our offices are glass-doored, so 
  not sound-proofed, though that's a good idea.
His submissions are both dead as well: http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=richarmstrong

What's happening here?

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