Hacker News Reader

Comment by Arizhel | Hacker News Reader

>The other day, one of my cow-orkers asked me, how can I bear working late hours - it must be very lonely. I desperately tried not to answer that with "that's precisely the point".

Is your cow-orker also a software engineer (or "engineer" if you prefer, esp. in their case)?

I'm starting to think that a large majority of software developers actually like open-plan work environments with lots of interruptions, however they also don't browse forums like this very much. They do well (or well enough to keep their jobs) in these environments, enjoy them, but they don't hang out on places like this online either at work or after-hours, and go home to play with their kids or watch sports or hang out at bars.

View on HN

Yes, he's also a software engineer[0]. Yes, I have a similar suspicion.

This is a longer topic, but in my mind there's a bimodal distribution on a spectrum of attitude towards programming. Some, like me, are people in love with technology, who go home to tinker on side projects. Other - like that cow-orker - treat software as a career, and they go home to socialize, play board games with friends, etc. Without judging anyone, my impression is that our industry is mostly filled with the second kind of people now[1], and they seem to predominantly feel good in open-space offices.

In the end, I figured that my preferences must be in minority, so I don't complain too much. That is, unless someone is really distracting me for longer periods of time, at which point I'll kindly ask them to stop.

[0] - I'm not here to tell him how he should feel about his degree. For myself, looking back at the education I got, I think my feelings were best expressed by a friend of mine: "if for that I'm an engineer, then I'm afraid to go to a doctor".

[1] - I believe it used to be different in the past, but that impression might be colored by small exposure to the real software world in my teens; the kind of people you meet on-line in programming circles are usually self-selected to be tech lovers / geeks.

>For myself, looking back at the education I got, I think my feelings were best expressed by a friend of mine: "if for that I'm an engineer, then I'm afraid to go to a doctor".

Don't worry too much: doctors get far more education and training than we engineers do, and it's a lot more rigorous. They have to get a 4-year undergrad premed degree, and then at least 4 years in med school, plus residency (which is basically on-the-job training), etc. It's nothing at all like engineering where you can get a BS in 4 years or so and then be set loose.

Wow, I've never realized I may have filter bubbled myself to believe that all devs hate open offices. Not sure I want to believe that either, though. Too depressing.

It's pretty normal for people to believe their opinion is the majority one; I'm sure there's a psychological term for it ("confirmation bias" I think).

But I've seen way too many devs who seem to actually like being able to interrupt their coworkers to think that all devs hate that, and I've seen way too many comments on places like this in favor of open offices.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com