I read a lot of hate for open offices on Hacker News, but I don't think it's as simple as "open offices are bad." Last year my startup moved into our first office and I did an informal survey of the team (who had previously been working from their respective homes) about whether they'd prefer their main desks to be in private offices or an open room, and the winner was the open office.

My point isn't that open offices are better. But some people clearly prefer them, and I think this community would benefit from a more nuanced discussion about when an open office is better vs. when private rooms are better.

This article takes a step in that direction by pointing out that some open layouts are better than others, but the author also makes it pretty clear that he never thinks an open office is a good thing. The world is rarely so black and white.