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Comment by mrtron | Hacker News Reader

I thought the current trend was to tear down the walls - not build ceilings.

Since when is social interaction between coworkers a bad thing?

The most productive period of my life was when I lived in our dorms at college. The dorms were arranged in suites of six small rooms, each of which was big enough to hold a bed, a desk across from the bed, and a nice big window at the far end. Each room was probably about the size of one of these little houses.

Outside was a common area where the six folks in the suite could gather, watch TV, hold parties, conduct mysterious pseudoscientific experiments, et cetera.

It was great. The secret is that when you wanted quiet, you got quiet. But then when you wanted to interact a bit, you opened the door. To interact a little more, wander up and down the hall. To interact even more, walk out the door into the common area. Then there were larger common areas in the lobby downstairs, the yard outside, the dining hall down the road...

I work in an open plan office now. My coworkers are great, but you can't have a phone conversation without being afraid that you're destroying the productivity of ten people, and it's getting increasingly difficult to focus. Which can make you really tired and lower your rate of doing work. There are times when I've had to start breaking out the headphones and the ambient music, which is a real sign of desperation.

Spontaneous social interaction is a bad thing if one is performing a task that requires intense and uninterrupted concentration. It can be a good thing when planning, and is generally a bad thing when executing. Are you the rare example of a programmer who works better with distraction? Or do you possibly do something other than write complex code all day?

I do write code that requires uninterrupted concentration for stretches - but I can get into the zone from anywhere. This week I had some of my best sessions at a loud coffee shop. I don't want to be in a sensory deprivation chamber for hours.

Lately I have also been working tightly collaboratively on projects for over a year - and find sitting in the same room with the person quite helpful. Communication is more challenging than focus - isn't it?

We are worried that the houses contribute to isolation almost too much. But they are designed to have teams roll them into circles so the windows line up, but not directly. So your line of site to the left and right is clear of distraction, but merely leaning forward let's you speak with team members on either side. Trying to find that right balance between instant collaboration and total isolation. :)

We also can park a table with chairs in the middle of the circle and since every house has a 4x8 whiteboard on the front, you have a whiteboard lined conference room for the project team that is about 8 steps away from your chair.

There's a difference between the droning white noise of conversations not fighting for your attention and having people pester you directly because they want to ask you a question and have zero respect for your zone. Your coffee shop is an example of the former, but I believe the parent to your post is talking about the latter.

Also, not everyone is the same. I welcome collaboration, but when I'm working on my own, I need the isolation.

I don't spend all my time in isolation. But I need to be able to shut the door and make the rest of the world go away. After a while, I'll open it and come back out.

The worst is tuning out crap taking place 3 - 5 feet away from me, in which I have no part. All the more so when it is fellow employees socializing, while I'm trying to get stuff done and maybe waiting on work from them, as well.

And I agree, when the background noise becomes a din with little in the way of distinguishable, coherent threads, that's a lot better for me than a conversation or two, each of which is largely or completely intelligible (if not always intelligent).

I don't know how anyone can be productive coding at a coffee shop with an uncomfortable chair and a laptop keyboard and screen. Sounds like hell on earth to me. Give me a door and some widescreens anyday.

Current trends aren't necessarily good. Open plan offices kind of suck. Especially since they are often an excuse to reassert the hierarchy of management --> employees (the management needs private offices to do 1:1s, evaluations, etc).

These houses don't prevent collaboration - they can be moved around, windows and doors can be open. The difficulty with open spaces/cubicles is that when you are not collaborating, some people won't think twice before interrupting you. When pair programming, it is different: the barrier to interruption seems higher when two programmers are working together. I think the type of 'zone' or 'flow' is different when pairing, too: not quite as deep, but easier to slip back into if you surface.

I have a really hard time zoning out chatter around me, and far too much of the chatter is completely irrelevant (e.g. personal grooming, youtube videos, etc).

"... Since when is social interaction between coworkers a bad thing? ..."

Since co-workers can walk up to you all the time asking questions or triggering your peripheral vision as they walking past you and when they believe their greatest hits should be your greatest hit.

Interaction is okay to a point, but sometimes you have to get things done in long stretches, uninterrupted.

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