See also: chapter 9 of the seminal "Peopleware," 3rd edition: [snip] Before drawing the plans for its Santa Teresa facility, IBM violated all industry standard

See also: chapter 9 of the seminal "Peopleware," 3rd edition: [snip] Before drawing the plans for its Santa Teresa facility, IBM violated all industry standards by carefully studying the work habits of those who would occupy the space. The study was designed by the architect Gerald McCue with the assistance of IBM area managers. Researchers observed the work processes in action in current work spaces and in mock-ups of proposed work spaces. They watched programmers, engineers, quality control workers, and managers go about their normal activities. From their studies, they concluded that a minimum accommodation for the mix of people slated to occupy the new space would be the following: • 100 square feet of dedicated space per worker • 30 square feet of work surface per person • Noise protection in the form of enclosed offices or 6-foot-high partitions (they ended up with about half of all professional personnel in enclosed one- and two-person offices) The rationale for building the new laboratory to respect these minimums was simple: People in the roles studied needed the space and quiet in order to perform optimally. Cost reduction to provide work space below the minimum would result in a loss of effectiveness that would more than offset the cost savings. Other studies have looked into the same questions and come up with more or less the same answers. [/snip] I just read "Deep Work" (due to another HN user's comment somewhere) and it's full of good information. Being able to work free of distractions and interruptions means incredible productivity. See also http://wiki.c2.com/?LordOfTheFlies http://wiki.c2.com/?LordOfTheFlies