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by Swizec 4117 days ago
I still prefer to just stay home when I have to actually get stuff done. Offices are weird.

It's not even about open or not. But I can only be really productive if I'm completely alone.

3 comments

This is the elephant in the room in these open office debates.

Yes, for programming at least, concentration and productivity is better when you move from an open office to something slightly more insular... But you're still thinking within a traditional office paradigm. If your goal is truly increased productivity, let's talk about remote flexibility.

Yet... for stake holders, it just seems wrong to have your workers be too independent. "Company culture" and "we're all in it together" is great for company owners, but at it's core it's really just a now widely normalized practice to get workers to invest even more energy and mindshare.

I can only imagine an increased openness to remote work setups (for geographically local workers) in the coming years. Makes too much sense.

This is the elephant in the room in remote work debates: remote makes you more productive at work work, on-site makes you more productive at office politics.

Which is better for your career? Hint: it's not remote.

+1 million

Really hard problem that needs to be solved real fast? Call me on my cell phone if a fire breaks out, otherwise see ya tomorrow.

If I had a private room (or even a cube on a quiet floor) I'd stay at the office instead.

I have been working (programmer - contracting) from home for 3 years and these have been the most productive 3 years of my life.
Yes, the seven years I worked from home every day were without question the most productive of my life so far.

It was interesting to see how different coworkers liked to communicate. Some people strongly preferred phone calls, while I strongly preferred IM - I can carry on a conversation or two via text without fully dropping out of my flow, while engaging speech/hearing seems to require a full context transition.