The flip side of noise, distraction and interruption is people. I still find it hard to get this part of my working life just right. On the one hand, to do rea

The flip side of noise, distraction and interruption is people. I still find it hard to get this part of my working life just right. On the one hand, to do really thoughtful work does require quiet and isolation, something that's difficult to get in open-plan spaces. On the other hand, avoiding garden paths and finding better ideas also requires the kind of impromptu chatting that happens with others around. Plus, company is nice. I feel like my ideal would be an office with two sections, the "library" and the "coffee shop". The library part is dead quiet, by design and by convention, somewhere always available when you need to focus. When your work is more mundane, you need a break or you feel like company, you can emerge and work around others in the more traditional open plan environment (i.e. the coffee shop). It doesn't seem that many workplaces are able to provide both environments well. Most favour just the latter.