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Here are three personal reasons: 1) It is good to be in an environment where others are hard at work because you'll be less likely to screw around. 2) It feel

by dbul 17y ago

Here are three personal reasons: 1) It is good to be in an environment where others are hard at work because you'll be less likely to screw around. 2) It feels like you are doing something fun (you are "out") and at the same time working hard. 3) Home can be quite distracting unless you are fortunate enough to have a large house with a nice office.

joeyo 17y ago
Regarding your first point, I find that if I am writing I need to change my work location every few weeks (or sometimes even more often). I become acclimated to the location and I become more prone to slacking off/day dreaming. Something the fresh location helps me a lot.
mechanical_fish 17y ago
It is good to be in an environment where others are hard at work because you'll be less likely to screw around. There is tons of psych research on the effect of isolation on humans. Basically, it drives you insane. It is literally a form of torture. We are social creatures, designed to live in packs and tribes. Even an antisocial human is a relatively social creature. It isn't easy to believe this until you've tried it. But I spent a year working out of my home office, and now I have a cubicle in an office again, and it is astonishing how much happier and more productive I am when I'm surrounded by other people, even if -- indeed, especially if -- they don't interact with me very much. Of course, there is plenty of other research (not to mention lots of anecdotes from folks like PG) on the benefits of not being interrupted when you're trying to program. So what you really want is the library, where there are fellow humans around, but nobody will approach you or even speak in a loud voice. (Or perhaps you want a fishbowl office like the one Joel Spolsky built, where you can see lots of other people but you can't hear them.)
- skinnymuch 17y ago
  I have found that weird. I'm a huge loner and don't particularly need to talk to someone on a regular basis, but I get messed up if I'm not at least around people a lot. That's the exact reason Starbucks is my second home right now. About the no interruptions - I can't remember the last time someone's interrupted my at Starbucks. But that could be that I always have my headphones on and have my eyes fixated on my laptop screen or book.
  - likpok 17y ago
    I think the issue with $coffee-shop is not that someone will interrupt you directly (e.g. talk to you), but that a commotion in the background will interrupt you

by dbul 17y ago

joeyo 17y ago

Regarding your first point, I find that if I am writing I need to change my work location every few weeks (or sometimes even more often). I become acclimated to the location and I become more prone to slacking off/day dreaming. Something the fresh location helps me a lot.

mechanical_fish 17y ago

It is good to be in an environment where others are hard at work because you'll be less likely to screw around. There is tons of psych research on the effect of isolation on humans. Basically, it drives you insane. It is literally a form of torture. We are social creatures, designed to live in packs and tribes. Even an antisocial human is a relatively social creature. It isn't easy to believe this until you've tried it. But I spent a year working out of my home office, and now I have a cubicle in an office again, and it is astonishing how much happier and more productive I am when I'm surrounded by other people, even if -- indeed, especially if -- they don't interact with me very much. Of course, there is plenty of other research (not to mention lots of anecdotes from folks like PG) on the benefits of not being interrupted when you're trying to program. So what you really want is the library, where there are fellow humans around, but nobody will approach you or even speak in a loud voice. (Or perhaps you want a fishbowl office like the one Joel Spolsky built, where you can see lots of other people but you can't hear them.)

skinnymuch 17y ago
I have found that weird. I'm a huge loner and don't particularly need to talk to someone on a regular basis, but I get messed up if I'm not at least around people a lot. That's the exact reason Starbucks is my second home right now. About the no interruptions - I can't remember the last time someone's interrupted my at Starbucks. But that could be that I always have my headphones on and have my eyes fixated on my laptop screen or book.
- likpok 17y ago
  I think the issue with $coffee-shop is not that someone will interrupt you directly (e.g. talk to you), but that a commotion in the background will interrupt you