Part of the reason you get so many differences in opinion for these kinds of questions is it depends on the type of work and environment. For example there are

Part of the reason you get so many differences in opinion for these kinds of questions is it depends on the type of work and environment. For example there are thousands of HN users who work in companies with <20 people. I personally have more than 5x that number of people on my floor. There are companies where anything not directly work related is discouraged and then there are companies where having a 20min coffee break with co-workers, or having weekly team events, etc is encouraged. In the first kind of company it would be isolating to work in a private office, whereas in the second kind of company it could work well. Etc, etc. Personally I hate open offices... but I work next to sales people and a few very loud co-workers.