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That's twice I've hit the flag button this week, I think that's a new record. The debate isn't new, and this blog post doesn't say anything that hundreds/thous

That's twice I've hit the flag button this week, I think that's a new record. The debate isn't new, and this blog post doesn't say anything that hundreds/thousands of other blog posts haven't already discussed. HN itself has had its regular round-table on open-plan offices for eons now. The only difference here is that this blog post descends into ad hominem right in the subject line. I've worked in a terrible open plan space, I've also worked in a remarkably productive one. I've seen some of the horrible ways it can fail, I've also seem some of the ways it can be great. The debate is worth having, but not if it's "everyone who doesn't agree with me is a blithering idiot".

nick2 13y ago
but have you ever worked in a terrible private office set up?
- potatolicious 13y ago
  Yes. It was depressing, and having to get up off your ass to discuss even the slightest triviality was annoying to no end. I like my current open setup. I'm not a fan of all open setups, but there are advantages above and beyond the oft-quoted one of cost. There are also tools that seek to replicate the advantages of being physically next to the person you need to communicate with, but in my experience they are pale facsimiles of the real thing. Screen sharing, video conferencing, IM, shared whiteboarding (this last one is by far the worst, not a single product I've ever seen in this space has been anything but terrible). None of these are "good enough" replicas of sitting next to someone. When I worked in a private office setup even just wrangling people for scheduled meetings was a pain in the ass. So even actually trying to talk to some people face to face was terrible - the culture developed a tolerance for lateness. Someone's in the zone and making code sing, they can be 90 seconds late to the meeting. Then everyone starts being 90 seconds late. Then 2 minutes. Then 3... Before you know it the first 10 minutes of every scheduled meeting was a complete writeoff. But that's a cultural problem that can be fixed - as are nearly all problems with open plan. I'm not an open-plan zealot, I've seen how it can fail terribly. I've also seen how it can be great for my productivity and the productivity of my team. I object to being called an idiot because I've had good experiences with open plan spaces, and the author has not.

nick2 13y ago

but have you ever worked in a terrible private office set up?

potatolicious 13y ago
Yes. It was depressing, and having to get up off your ass to discuss even the slightest triviality was annoying to no end. I like my current open setup. I'm not a fan of all open setups, but there are advantages above and beyond the oft-quoted one of cost. There are also tools that seek to replicate the advantages of being physically next to the person you need to communicate with, but in my experience they are pale facsimiles of the real thing. Screen sharing, video conferencing, IM, shared whiteboarding (this last one is by far the worst, not a single product I've ever seen in this space has been anything but terrible). None of these are "good enough" replicas of sitting next to someone. When I worked in a private office setup even just wrangling people for scheduled meetings was a pain in the ass. So even actually trying to talk to some people face to face was terrible - the culture developed a tolerance for lateness. Someone's in the zone and making code sing, they can be 90 seconds late to the meeting. Then everyone starts being 90 seconds late. Then 2 minutes. Then 3... Before you know it the first 10 minutes of every scheduled meeting was a complete writeoff. But that's a cultural problem that can be fixed - as are nearly all problems with open plan. I'm not an open-plan zealot, I've seen how it can fail terribly. I've also seen how it can be great for my productivity and the productivity of my team. I object to being called an idiot because I've had good experiences with open plan spaces, and the author has not.