Rands in Repose: Managing Nerds
randsinrepose.com
randsinrepose.com
An IDE that displays code on the sides of rotating icosahedrons looks really cool for about 3 seconds, but is hugely impractical in reality. Similarly, giant noisy rooms seem more interesting in pictures and in planning but in practice are less useful than individual walled offices.
One of the great things about individual offices in terms of facilitating collaboration is that it actually makes it far easier to have impromptu meetings between a small number of people. In cubicles people tend to avoid such things since the noise is disruptive to others and there's not much room for people, with offices you can close the door and have 3 or 4 people in a single office without much problem or much impact on others. There are many other examples.
The other point is that while an individual programmer might be more productive when he's alone in a room, a group might be more productive if they're all in the same room together. No point in having everyone write twice as much code per day if the code no longer fits together and nobody has any idea what everybody else is doing.
How much of a programmer's time is actually spent sitting down in full-on focus mode belting out lines of code?
Besides, groups of developers in large open source projects, distributed around the world, seem to manage fine.
People can only work in groups when you divvy the work up between them, or if the group all focusses on one thing (one guy holds the fencepole up, the other whacks it with a hammer. One guy codes, the other guy checks the code. Etc).
The little full-on focus mode I get is spent on working out which code I need to put where. The remainder, simple code-monkey work, can be done in a normally focussed manner. Constant integration with everyone else's work destroys all focus.
(Unfortunately, in my case, there are about fifty photographers surrounding our office, so every day I see a bunch of flashes. :( )
How about some silence without head (or ear-canal) compressors on?
Kinda like coding at a Starbucks, where there's nonstop conversation on all sides, but a near certainty that none of it will be directed at you. White noise + Social Energy = Productivity in my experience.
Silence is mandatory.
Silence is mandatory.
I mean, at least you're very unlikely to encounter a place with a dress code. There's still plenty of fluorescent lights and droning HVAC systems, though.
Makes me paran^H^H^H^H^Hcautious.
His Nerd Handbook (http://randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbo...) quite likely saved my relationship with a highly non-technical increasingly significant other. I owe the man a bunch.
He also worked with Apple and Borland. Not your average tech blogger.
If you've not read anything from his blog before, it's worth at least skimming back through the archives to see what tickles your fancy. He's got some VERY good articles.
It does make me wonder how many different knots are common for one to be attacking at any given time (not moment, just in general).
EDIT: i'm wearing my hoodie, yo!