81–90 of 259 posts
How about having a developer area that is treated like a library? Silence enforced at all times, you have to whisper if you strike an impromptu conversation. And if that bubbles to a brainstorm, get up and grab a conference room to talk about it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow. You think that time I spend coding features you asked for is not helping you? Then at the end of the week, I am still giving an accounting of why a feature isn't finished on a schedule given by the same people who were interrupting the work I was doing to satisfy their stated priorities. I'm amazed at how you totally ignore that this makes people miserable and contributes to bad management. Why not learn to use…
I don't think anyone is arguing that writing features isn't helping the company in general, and the individuals that asked for it - but that's not the only way developers can help other individuals within a company: - Developers can ask other developers questions when they're stuck on a certain problem. In my experience, developers waste far more time when they're stuck on a problem then when they're interrupted. - Q…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Speaking as a developer, I've worked for years both in open-plan spaces and in individual offices. My experience is that productivity is incomparably better in an individual office. There was no upside to open-plan; just constant interruption and frustration.
> constant interruption and frustration. The point of the post you are replying to is that the "constant interruption and frustration" enables other developers to be more productive, raising the overall productivity of the team. Also, you probably remember the times when you were interrupted and it was annoying strongly, but do you remember the times you interrupted someone else and saved valuable time?
You can still interrupt someone without an open plan office, there's just a slightly higher bar that prevents most people from asking the knuckleheaded questions, and keeps constant non-conversational visual and auditory distractions to a minimum.
Instant messaging has some interesting research[1] as a solution for solving the communication/interruption conflict: " Analysis of these data indicates that IM use has no influence on overall levels of work communication. However, people who utilize IM at work report being interrupted less frequently than non-users, and they engage in more frequent computer-mediated communication than non-users, including both work-…
Some companies use IRC on their intranet; that's a setup I've used, and I found it useful and not very distracting.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
it focuses on individual productivity This is one of those "beat the drum" issues on HN where we keep seeing article after article trying to drive the same one-sided point home. When I see this as the top article on HN, I just have to wonder if many of the people who come to HN are looking to disrupt the startup community. I've worked in environments that run the gamut from individual offices, to cubes, to small work…
> Maybe one or two in ten people have trouble working in that environment In my experience they are the one or two that do all the heavy lifting.
See what I just did there?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Speaking as a developer, I've worked for years both in open-plan spaces and in individual offices. My experience is that productivity is incomparably better in an individual office. There was no upside to open-plan; just constant interruption and frustration.
> constant interruption and frustration. The point of the post you are replying to is that the "constant interruption and frustration" enables other developers to be more productive, raising the overall productivity of the team. Also, you probably remember the times when you were interrupted and it was annoying strongly, but do you remember the times you interrupted someone else and saved valuable time?
No, because I've never been so at a loss for things to do that I couldn't do something else productive while waiting for an email or IM question/answer response cycle to continue.
Interrupting is rude, full stop. Like other instances of rude behavior, it should not be undertaken lightly.
Suffers from the same flaw as most critiques of open plan: it focuses on individual productivity while failing to understand how it contributes to team productivity. Cornell did a study of open plan awhile back that you should all read. I posted it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7507404 The misunderstanding here is that it's just about serendipitously "overhearing" other conversations. 1. Open plan makes…
Non-programmers generally never know how to read whether it is a good time to interrupt or not, unless it's obvious you're just reading an article or something.
Too many times I see these floor plan discussions and just wonder if its an excuse for poor management or worse, developers.
Suffers from the same flaw as most critiques of open plan: it focuses on individual productivity while failing to understand how it contributes to team productivity. Cornell did a study of open plan awhile back that you should all read. I posted it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7507404 The misunderstanding here is that it's just about serendipitously "overhearing" other conversations. 1. Open plan makes…
That link about the Cornell study is comically bad. Where are the raw data tables? Doing a little background research it seems they were comparing open floor plans to cubicles. They didn't even consider the obvious alternatives to the panopticon, such as remote work or the tried-and-true office with a door.
It was a link to a summary of the actual study. With that said I went and skimmed the original study and that looked just as bad. Here's the original study.
http://iwsp.human.cornell.edu/file_uploads/offices1_12382569...
Forget the fact that they didn't have the raw data. They don't clearly explain on what basis they reach their conclusions.
How are they measuring the 'success' of an open floor plan? For that matter, how can you even measure the 'success' of an open floor plan versus a close floor plan?
i have previously leased and built out a high-end office in a building in downtown chicago and the amount of time burned with the architect, waiting for permits, and construction is serious. after doing that once, i will never do an office build-out again unless i actually own the building. when you add in the fact that the building is "union only", the delays in construction become ridiculous.
after going through this part myself, i'm all for open-plan offices, despite their being less than ideal for developers. the majority of our developers work on remote anyhow.