[hbosch]

This looks cool.

Also, because I'm interested: I wonder why your average HN comment section seems to generally enjoy or recommend ambient café noise, and yet "open offices" tend to be thought of so poorly. Is it that the café ambiance usually does not carry a sense of work-related stress? Does working outside of your office make ambient noise more tolerable?

[archon]

> Does working outside of your office make ambient noise more tolerable?

Ambient noise in a cafe is different than ambient noise in an office, in my experience. Obviously this is going to be different in each office and cafe, but I'll try to compare/contrast them.

In a cafe:

* (Con) The conversations of my closest neighbors, clearly-audible.

* (Pro) Muted conversations of everyone in the building

* (Pro, sometimes con) The espresso machine(s)

* (Pro) Weather sounds (rain, wind)

* (Con) Road noise

In an open office:

* (Con) Office air conditioner noise

* (Con) Typing and mouse clicks

* (Con) Every conversation in the space is clearly-audible.

* (Con) Doors opening and closing

* (Con) The annoying beep our badge entry/exit system makes

* (Con) Phone conversations

[NeutronBoy]

Almost all of your cons (perhaps with the exceptions of the entry/exit beeps) for open offices are applicable to cafes also.

[VLM]

Its an Overton Window issue.

Open offices are a bad idea but at the "Popular" stage of the fad its possible for both sides of the argument to rationally discuss open offices.

The idea of intentionally creating noise drifts into the "Unthinkable" range of the window so its not even possible to debate, the only people who can speak are the folks who like it loud and distracting and the quiet people are literally speechless. Honestly I find the idea of an intentional noisemaker as trolly or something loud people would use to tease or punish people they know don't like noise.

I guess the only comment I can make is someone needs to make a parody of the parody noise generator for riot background, crying baby, next door neighbors having sex, random gunfire/arty/mortars, low flying jet aircraft, and boom car background sound generators. How about a die grinder machine cutting steel at 20Krpm? The sound of a chainsaw clearcutting a forest. Or the sound of a refugee camp? Because if a little distraction is good, and a lot is better, then huge amounts must be awesome. Just like adding salt to cooking.

[rayiner]

Same reason you can tune out the murmurings of a crowd but perk up when you hear your name. At work, keywords that might be meaningful to you constantly pull at your foreground attention instead of receding into the background.

[ocb]

People don't try to talk to you at a cafe.

[pavel_lishin]

People also typically tend to have less one-sided conversations at cafes; or if they do, they tend to do it more quietly.

[ryandrake]

I'd much rather be in an open office with colleagues working on the same thing I am than in a noisy, distraction-filled coffee shop or at home with a screaming kid and a dog barking every time something goes 'bump' outside.