How Hard Could it Be?: Adventures in Office Space
inc.com
inc.com
Fiscal conservatism should be all the rage if you ever startup something. So you can grow, and then get the 150 gal saltwater aquarium.
But for a lot of the rest of us, it's just not a big deal. The mechanics of the work environment (good location, quiet, offices with doors, etc...) certainly matter. But the look? Meh. To us, no matter what the physical space is, it's the coworkers who really define the work environment. Just bear that in mind before you decide that you have to write that huge check to the interior designer.
At best, pretty space is going to help retain people on the margin: maybe it's a tiebreaker between you and google, etc... But it's never much more than a tiebreaker.
I'd want to work there merely because he's inclined to do things like this, even if I didn't care about the office.
Never heard of them until now...it's art you actually use!
- or am I the last to not use ADblocker (using FF )
A desire to shape our environment to be aesthetically pleasing is not a human defect that needs to be transcended: it's a natural desire that fulfilled improves our lives. (Example: it's been shown that higher ceilings increase creative problem solving: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/519146)
You speak as if you've taken the better side in the case of form vs. function. But just like we're wary of people obsessed with form over function I think we should be wary of praising function and degrading the importance form.
It appears he treats his programmers like royalty, but where are the UI designers? This is painfully evident in the look of FogBugz and other software from Fog Creek.
The argument he uses for creating a great environment for his programmers works the same way regarding his software-- creating a really nice place for his customers to work will hopefully make them happier.