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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

#131

Post by paganel »

I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet (I haven't read through all the comments), but having the headquarters located somewhere in an interesting area (preferable downtown, and I don't mean the downtown of a dying city like Detroit) and allowing your employees to take their 45min-1h lunch break where-ever they want (in this way taking full advantage of the cafes/restaurants/beautiful buildings supposedly surrounding their work-place) it's also a very nice thing to have.

For me, at least, it allows me to clear my head and come back fresh to my desk full of new ideas and joie de vivre. I think what companies like Google end up doing, by keeping their employees locked-up in beautiful golden cages even during launch-breaks is detrimental in the long run.

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

#132

Post by Egregore »

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…

A little offtopic: Are your lunches vegetarian?

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

#133

Post by mattdeboard »

nknight wrote: post #114
jackowayed wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you manage the differentiation without the less special classes having some resentment? There are some costs that they'd likely understand (person who spends all day in email and Word objectively does not need as good of a computer as a developer), but how do you tell someone that they're not worthy of the same desk/chair that a developer is? What happens if there's a spare developer chair that they start sitt…

A developer who plants themselves in their chair for a 12-hour hacking run and barely moves in that time objectively needs a more ergonomic environment than the 9-4:30-ers that spend most of their time standing around the water cooler or coffee maker.

Objectively according to who? The developer? That's the point. To the event planner who spends 12 hours working in excel she's got just as legit a need. Seconding the "pretty princesses" sentiment posted above.

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

#134

Post by keithpeter »

nknight wrote: post #114
jackowayed wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you manage the differentiation without the less special classes having some resentment? There are some costs that they'd likely understand (person who spends all day in email and Word objectively does not need as good of a computer as a developer), but how do you tell someone that they're not worthy of the same desk/chair that a developer is? What happens if there's a spare developer chair that they start sitt…

A developer who plants themselves in their chair for a 12-hour hacking run and barely moves in that time objectively needs a more ergonomic environment than the 9-4:30-ers that spend most of their time standing around the water cooler or coffee maker.

I'd rephrase this a bit...

I am a mere gadfly, a dilettante, and I have to get up and walk around to think, draw, sketch, scribble, look out of the window, focus on the horizon. At work, I spend a lot of time talking to groups of people, and moving things about. I'm actually unable to sit at a keyboard and type for more than an hour. So I use a kitchen chair in my home office and at work we have cheapo semi-adjustable computer type chairs, and three year old Windows boxes with smallish LCD monitors.

If someone else at work really did sit or stand at their keyboard for 12 hours straight, I'd have no problem at all with them having a fancy chair, because they would have my admiration and sympathy.

...might sell the idea a bit better to the support staff

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

#135

Post by mdonahoe »

nikcub wrote: post #130
arethuza wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you are used to - 62F is 16.6C which seems like a nice warm summers day here (it is currently 13C and not very nice at at all). We haven't used the heating at home since May or so and probably won't until September/October.

heating? when I started working in IT the computers would heat up the room

The building I work in was designed in the early late 70s with that fact as part of the heating plan.

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

#136

Post by sethg »

mgkimsal wrote: post #99
gte910h wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can locally heat up a cube. There isn't really an effective cooling substitute that's localized. I would have killed for 62F. My house is 68F year round (I work at home now). (My bedroom is probably 64-66 or so).

My fingers couldn't type or mouse very effectively. 100+ people worked in frigid temps so a few people on the other side of the wall could have mid 70s - the thermostat was on their side of the wall. :/

Obviously, what you needed was a heated keyboard:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/23/heated-keyboard-keeps-fin...

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

#137

Post by AhtiK »

Interesting that the mouse is considered as something as "up to $70". After you get used to high-dpi gaming mouse you can't even work properly with Just like moving to SSD felt like a revolution, for me moving up to a gaming grade mouse has been.. irreplaceable.

The precision and speed for any mouse-oriented task saves quite some time and especially gives a great feeling of having better contact with the screen. Highly reccommended.

It takes a few days to get used to moving your hand a lot less than before but think how much less strain!

Current setup: Logitech G9X and Razer exactmat. Previous mouse was Razer Lachesis but ergonomically it was somewhat crap.

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

#138

Post by sethg »

angelbob wrote: post #110
mattdeboard wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, sorry, are you saying that a company shouldn't hire a person if they can't afford top-end office equipment? Or is this only for developers? I think that's silly & unrealistic, and am hoping it's just hyperbole to make a point. (edit: I don't actually disagree with your general point, that better tools == higher productivity == better return on that developer salary. However, implying the cost of buying top-end…

Probably primarily for developers. A $100/mo investment to get more out of your developers (who cost at least $30k, and usually $100k+) isn't a problem. If you're looking at much cheaper office staff, you can presumably pay less to make them more productive since hiring more of them is cheaper (measured in Aerons).

One of the points of the original article is that when you take depreciation into account, you can afford to give a developer his or her dream work tools for just $100/month.

According to salary.com, entry-level secretaries in Fog Creek’s neighborhood have a median salary of about $40K. Budgeting another $1.2K to cover the secretary’s computer and furniture does not seem extravagant to me.

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

#139

Post by joshuacc »

AhtiK wrote: post #137

Interesting that the mouse is considered as something as "up to $70". After you get used to high-dpi gaming mouse you can't even work properly with Just like moving to SSD felt like a revolution, for me moving up to a gaming grade mouse has been.. irreplaceable. The precision and speed for any mouse-oriented task saves quite some time and especially gives a great feeling of having better contact with the screen. High…

Based on your recommendation, I think I may have to try a gaming mouse.

However, the model you mentioned is currently listed as $71.99 on Amazon. Were you thinking of a different model, or have prices just dropped since you bought it?

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

#140

Post by AhtiK »

joshuacc wrote: post #139
AhtiK wrote: post #137

Interesting that the mouse is considered as something as "up to $70". After you get used to high-dpi gaming mouse you can't even work properly with Just like moving to SSD felt like a revolution, for me moving up to a gaming grade mouse has been.. irreplaceable. The precision and speed for any mouse-oriented task saves quite some time and especially gives a great feeling of having better contact with the screen. High…

Based on your recommendation, I think I may have to try a gaming mouse. However, the model you mentioned is currently listed as $71.99 on Amazon. Were you thinking of a different model, or have prices just dropped since you bought it?

Ah yes, it's the same. I guess the prices have dropped, it was bought almost two years ago.

By the way, gaming mouse usually requires a good mouse pad in order to have the effect. Razer has a good selection, maybe others as well.

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