The whole idea of bringing people together for more interaction can easily be abused. As a dev at a startup, we just sit at a big table (well, technically 6 des

The whole idea of bringing people together for more interaction can easily be abused. As a dev at a startup, we just sit at a big table (well, technically 6 desks pushed together). While we have had some great discussions that improved our workflow and even the direction of the company, we also had many, many discussions about football, Verge articles, and Youtube videos. Being motivated, (generally) hard-working developers, we actually got a bit frustrated with how easy it was to interact with each other. A few months ago, we let go of most of our scheduling structure, and now we have virtually no obligation to be in the office if we don't want to. Now we just work from home if we absolutely need a highly productive day. I like the structure we've come up with (plus we distract each other a lot less these days), and we are much more productive. There's a balance to be struck, and encouraging interaction can have unintended side effects if you aren't careful.