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Comment by gruseom | Hacker News Reader

Every time this subject comes up on HN, most people agree that open offices suck. As a programmer, I don't understand this. I like collaborating. Software is a team sport. I want a space that's optimized for teamwork.

Certainly sometimes I want to go away and think by myself. I want that option, but not as the default.

If programmers don't work well together, then by Conway's Law neither will their code. Beyond that, batting ideas around is just more fun than playing the solitary genius - and produces more satisfying results.

The kind of open office I like, though, is one in which the people are all working on the same system. I agree that noise and interference from unrelated activity is a disaster. It's very simple: everything should be organized around the team.

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Personally, my problem with open plans isn't my team members, it's everyone else in the building who isn't on my team.

This is the point that the "team office" plan tries to address. Everyone you want to talk to is in the same room, everyone from other departments, people on manager schedule, etc, is behind a closed door.

Have you ever worked in open space environments?

The noise is aweful, the distrubances are maximized, people walking all over the place, it is awkward when somebody comes to me and we dont have a place to talk other than right there - and thus distrub all my nearby collegues.

We have "cubes" for that, but cubes are too formal, you need almost an invite, and when you do, its too crowded inside, and then you are away from your workplace where you have all the stuff. Sure, bring your laptop, if you have one, the desk computers we have are not so easy to bring along.

Right, that's dreadful (see my last paragraph). But when most people object to open spaces they do so in terms of private offices. I don't want that either. I want a team area. Doesn't seem so hard.

I can't think of any team sport where the members of the team need to spend long periods of time concentrating hard, on their own, without distraction. Can you?

Bridge might qualify, depending on how you play it, but otherwise you're right.

You're pushing the metaphor too hard. Most sports don't involve typing, either.

The point is that complex enough software systems are beyond the capacity of a single person to build, and once you have a team, the team becomes the most important thing.

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