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Every time this debate pops up on HN, I find this quote from Bell Labs scientist Richard Hamming interesting to consider: I noticed the following facts about p
by gklitt 12y ago
Every time this debate pops up on HN, I find this quote from Bell Labs scientist Richard Hamming interesting to consider:
I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important. Now I cannot prove the cause and effect sequence because you might say, 'The closed door is symbolic of a closed mind.' I don't know. But I can say there is a pretty good correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately do important things, although people who work with doors closed often work harder. Somehow they seem to work on slightly the wrong thing - not much, but enough that they miss fame.
Source: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html
- scottw 12y agoThis is not the same thing. Hamming worked with geniuses who knew the difference between "A moment Dick? Have you ever noticed how (some astute observation)?" and "Hey! Good weekend? (some bland filler)." See chapter 3 of said _Quiet_.
- jstalin 12y agoThis isn't a binary choice between an open office plan and everyone with closed office doors.
- jccc 12y agoThis is quite obviously a metaphor. He's talking about lone wolves without the habit of seeking collaboration. From the same source further down, regarding brainstorming: There were a group of other people I used to talk with. For example there was Ed Gilbert; I used to go down to his office regularly and ask him questions and listen and come back stimulated. [...] Yes, I find it necessary to talk to people. I think people with closed doors fail to do this so they fail to get their ideas sharpened, such as ``Did you ever notice something over here?'' I never knew anything about it - I can go over and look. Somebody points the way. On my visit here, I have already found several books that I must read when I get home. I talk to people and ask questions when I think they can answer me and give me clues that I do not know about. I go out and look! And he's speaking from a time before ubiquitous email and online chat. Do you really imagine that the solitude-seekers' problem is that they want to avoid collaboration? Do you imagine that forcing them into the mind-blender type of office eight hours every day of the week is necessary because we need to make them collaborate more, to make sure they know the right things to work on?
- jrs99 12y agothough there are plenty of people out there that don't want any fame or any kind of prestige.
- voidlogic 12y agoGreat quote-- The obvious solution here is default to keeping your door open, but having the freedom to close it for short periods of time as needed is invaluable. The problem with open office plans IMHO is that freedom does not exist. (well, maybe it does in the form of WFH if that is allowed).
- dsr_ 12y agoIf you don't have an office door to close, then it doesn't matter which way you want to set it today.
- autoreleasepool 12y agoStill, I don't think Richard Hamming was arguing for removing doors altogether. If we are going to take his metaphor literally, then I say do it with moderation. Sometimes it's nice to have your door open for part of the day, but to close it when you really need to focus. The problem is that in an open floor plan, a lot of people are stripped of the power to moderate themselves. This only benefits the person who would have never closed their door, not the person who decided they would keep it open for a while.