Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors. • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors.

#191

Post by Drbble » Fri, May 18, 2012, 2:45 PM UTC

jwoah12 wrote: post #165

goblin89 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To tell the difference between the two is the problem. An understanding of decent work environment varies from person to person. Is it better to have small or large offices? I'd say the larger the better, having working people around helps me concentrate. Does coffee benefit productivity? I'd say it certainly does not (contrast to a good nap at the right moment), and probably isn't very good for health. Now, if I'm a…

> Does coffee benefit productivity? I'd say it certainly does not (contrast to a good nap at the right moment), and probably isn't very good for health. I know this isn't the point of your comment, but I had to point out this recent study that begs to differ. http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/17/coffee-drink-more-live...

Well it suggests? That study had minimal controls for correlating factors, only alcohol and red meat, nothing about careers and lifestyles that correlate to coffee consumption. Less likely to die from "accidents" is an especially suspicious measurement.

Re: Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors.

#192

Post by xxdiamondxx » Fri, May 18, 2012, 2:47 PM UTC

makecheck wrote: post #14

crazygringo wrote: post #8

The monitors, I totally understand and agree with. That's about actual productivity. But choosing your own e-mail address? There must be a thousand little details like that in my life, every day, that I have no control over, like the color of my desk, or the sound of a coworker's voice. By all means, try to find a workplace that suits you the best, but if a seemingly tiny detail like that bothers you so much, unless…

Sometimes an E-mail is used on other company systems as a log-in, in whole or in part. I used to sympathize with past co-workers who had names much longer than mine, imagining them having to type "really_long_first.really_long_last@company.com" just to log into some web site. I've also seen IT people enforce their random rules on everyone, leading to things like "rba186" as someone's actual E-mail address name instea…

Yeah, I think the CDC does the random email thing. It seems really weird, but I guess I can only imagine how many @cdc.gov email addresses there are.

Re: Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors.

#193

Post by nollidge » Fri, May 18, 2012, 2:49 PM UTC

knewter wrote: post #176

steve8918 wrote: post #84

Valuing an employee's time is definitely something that should be considered. But even taken a few steps further than "I need another monitor to increase productivity", and you're floating dangerously close to self-entitlement, and simple, pathetic whining. At Yahoo, I distinctly remember a thread on devel-random where one employee, in a single post, complained about things like how ugly the color scheme of the walls…

> It also sounds like the boss didn't bother asking the employee at their 1:1's about what they thought needed changing, or maybe he was just unapproachable. I'm an owner / CTO of a consultancy, and this point always frustrates me. We are only 12 or so employees, and we're all very comfortable with one another (we'll have game nights at the office, watch the GSL, etc). Still, when me and my partner have a 1:1 or talk…

Elicit anonymous feedback. It's hard (for me, at least) to complain face-to-face, especially to someone who writes your checks.

Re: Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors.

#194

Post by Drbble » Fri, May 18, 2012, 2:50 PM UTC

michael_miller wrote: post #121

As a corollary, I've found that salary is a good indicator of how good a company's culture is. Not because of the actual money of course (money doesn't buy happiness, blah blah blah), but because a company that pays its engineers more generally values its engineers more. Most of the "hip" companies with good culture (FB, Google, Palantir) pay quite well, whereas other companies associated with a bad culture (which I…

And facebook sits engineers at grand long tables people complain about.

Re: Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors.

#195

Post by Drbble » Fri, May 18, 2012, 2:51 PM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #50

This post confuses masterful flourishes with substance. And by the way, I don't like big monitors - I get too many degrees of freedom and find it too hard to focus. I have a 27" cinema that I never use with my 13" MBP.

How can you fit a line of Java code on a 13" screen?

Re: Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors.

#196

Post by Drbble » Fri, May 18, 2012, 2:53 PM UTC

penetrator wrote: post #48

it's hard for me to imagine that the first apple computer would be have been created if woz insisted on using a large cinema projector, much less two projectors he hacked a regular tv instead, and that's how apple was born

If cinema projectors were bog standard then, there would have been no market for the Apple.

Re: Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors.

#197

Post by philbarr » Fri, May 18, 2012, 2:55 PM UTC

knewter wrote: post #176

steve8918 wrote: post #84

Valuing an employee's time is definitely something that should be considered. But even taken a few steps further than "I need another monitor to increase productivity", and you're floating dangerously close to self-entitlement, and simple, pathetic whining. At Yahoo, I distinctly remember a thread on devel-random where one employee, in a single post, complained about things like how ugly the color scheme of the walls…

> It also sounds like the boss didn't bother asking the employee at their 1:1's about what they thought needed changing, or maybe he was just unapproachable. I'm an owner / CTO of a consultancy, and this point always frustrates me. We are only 12 or so employees, and we're all very comfortable with one another (we'll have game nights at the office, watch the GSL, etc). Still, when me and my partner have a 1:1 or talk…

Coming from the UK, I'm always amazed at how important health insurance is in the US, and what a broad range of quality of healthcare there is. Our company provide a free, private healthcare (BUPA), but I've never felt the need to use it.

Recently, I had surgery for an ACL tear. Unfortunately, for some reason, it later went septic. The day the consultant found it was septic he rushed me into surgery that afternoon and I spent the next 6 nights on IV antibiotics, followed by a course of oral antibiotics. At no point did I have to worry about how much all this cost - and I didn't ring BUPA just because I couldn't be bothered and it was all perfectly satisfactory care.

When I was a kid I had extremely bad asthma. A new respirator type device had just been invented and I was one of the first in the North West to have one. These things cost thousands of pounds at the time and there's no way my parents would have been able to afford it, but they got it loaned to them completely free. It quite possibly saved my life.

I used to think how lucky I was that I wasn't born in some third world country where I would probably not have survived, but recently I've started to be glad I wasn't born in the US.

You guys really need to sort this out.

Re: Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors.

#198

Post by jaredmck » Fri, May 18, 2012, 3:02 PM UTC

knewter wrote: post #173

pcopley wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to work with you. I've currently got a ~4' whiteboard, a ~13" laptop with a ~15" 4:3 monitor attached to it in my cube. Takes some getting used to compared to the IdeaPaint-covered WALL at my home office and the two 24" widescreens.

I have a whiteboard wall at my office. Let me make a recommendation. Don't do it. Paint your wall white, or whatever, and get a big sheet of glass (or a few). Mount that sucker on the wall. Glass doesn't suck up color the way whiteboards do, and it's easy as hell to clean. It's also cheap as all get out - it's a big sheet of sand, after all. And you can do nifty things - arduino, RGB LED, mild paper backing, and you'…

Or buy a huge piece of shower board for $12 and mount that on the wall.

Re: Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors.

#199

Post by wpietri » Fri, May 18, 2012, 3:04 PM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #148

nirvana wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big monitors, small offices. Give me a room where I can close the door. I'll share it with one other person, but it can't be a tight fit. If you expect me to work while you're interrupting me every 5 minutes, then you don't really expect me to be productive. Also good- conference rooms for ad hoc meetings. (Maybe for the people who like to work together in a room they can take over a conference room or whatever.... m…

I don't get this new obsession with "let's just put everyone in a giant room so they can collaborate". I think it's a cop-out to not get bigger/better laid out offices. Developers need to write code either alone or in pairs. Large places breed interruptions, killing productivity. All these experimental ideas with unassigned offices where anyone uses them when they need to don't work either because people will simply…

I agree that distraction and interruption are giant problems, but I don't think that private offices are the only way to solve that.

I'm much happier in team spaces, where everybody who's involved is nearby. You do have to be disciplined to make it a good environment for coding. E.g., requiring that off-topic conversations happen elsewhere, and that people be generally quiet and respectful. But it can definitely work, and it makes collaboration 10x easier.

Re: Why Quit? Because the other company has bigger monitors.

#200

Post by pavelkaroukin » Fri, May 18, 2012, 3:13 PM UTC

sunkencity wrote: post #114

I too fall for the big monitor fallacy, I like running an external monitor at high rez. One screen with a web browser and the other with a split terminal vim split in 2-4 panes. But it's really just moat. I could do well with just one terminal and a little better short-term memory. If I work focused and take breaks, I can work with just one terminal window @ fullscreen, control-z for task management and a web browser…

This article wasn't about equipment. It was about external signs about culture. You can use whatever you love, be it iPad, old MB or Dell workstation with Windows on it. Whatever get job done.

But if company not willing spend money (quite little in the long run) on equipment - this is a sign that this place is bad for engineers since management value engineers less than equipment.