> I think it's easy to severely underestimate the value of having people overhear conversations and interactions of others beyond their obvious scope of work.

> I think it's easy to severely underestimate the value of having people overhear conversations and interactions of others beyond their obvious scope of work. I used to feel the same way, but after trying to balance focus and eavesdropping, I've come to the conclusion that it is too dependent on circumstances. Sometimes the conversations aren't happening in the right places at the right times. I think this is an unrecognized business problem, probably an unrecognized managerial responsibility. Some developers handle it by cultivating office social relationships with people in various parts of the company, but that's a burden than you can't put on everyone. Not only does it not make sense, but some people will be averse to it or simply not good at it. Rather than put the burden on developers, a good manager should keep the pulse of the rest of the company and keep everyone connected and oriented. Of course a manager can't do a perfect job, but they should do well enough that their engineers won't feel paranoid about not eavesdropping or gossiping enough. > siloing humans into isolated offices (a fundamentally unnatural state) I don't know that it's any more unnatural than asking people to complete demanding individual tasks while other people in their social group have conversations nearby. We're so wired to be social that having conversations nearby virtually compels multitasking, which we're not very good at, which is probably why historically people who have been able to afford the expense of quiet, private workspaces seem to prefer them. "A room of one's own" has become symbolic of the material and social conditions that enable difficult intellectual work.