Post #166,589
7/29/04 2:51:42 AM
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I wonder if that is universally true.
I recall a story about id Software some years ago. The programmers all had their own offices and retreated to them ostensibly for programming - except productivity was terrible. Someone - I don't remember who - decided they should be all together on open plan desks; i.e. no walls at all. The justification was that individual offices stifled too much communication. Once moved, the programmers were coding more and better and enjoying things more.
I've also programmed in an open-plan environment. On my own, headphones and my choice of music are a great way to isolate, but that's not possible when pair-programming. OTOH, two pairs pair-programming in the same room can and will distract each other.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #166,680
7/29/04 4:38:49 PM
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It depends on the people
Closed offices can be a productive environment - or an excuse to goof off. And people do need to cooperate with each other.
For me the approach of using music is awful - music that is enough to block out others is enough to kill my concentration. YMMV.
Your comment on 2 pairs pair-programming in the same room is classic. Noise is not an interruption when it relates to what you're doing. It is an interruption when it is about something other than what you want to focus on.
Cheers,
Ben
To deny the indirect purchaser, who in this case is the ultimate purchaser, the right to seek relief from unlawful conduct, would essentially remove the word consumer from the Consumer Protection Act
- [link|http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=1246&Page=1&pagePos=20|Nebraska Supreme Court]
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Post #166,702
7/29/04 8:38:42 PM
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Music works for me.
It must be the musician inside. :-) I do know that it is when I'm playing in a band that I most want to play around with my synth's programming...
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
| |
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
|
Post #166,717
7/29/04 10:10:46 PM
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Peopleware lists an interesting experiment on that
The took a group of students, and asked which ones liked working to music versus didn't. They then subdivided each into two groups, one of whom had to do a programming exercise in a room with music playing, and once of whom worked in a silent room.
They found no statistically significant difference between the performance of people depending on presence of preference for music.
BUT there was a trick! The problem involved a series of complex manipulations that simplified down to "give me back what I started with". All of the people who noticed that were in the quiet room.
The preliminary conclusion is that music doesn't harm productivity, but does hinder creativity.
Cheers,
Ben
To deny the indirect purchaser, who in this case is the ultimate purchaser, the right to seek relief from unlawful conduct, would essentially remove the word consumer from the Consumer Protection Act
- [link|http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=1246&Page=1&pagePos=20|Nebraska Supreme Court]
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Post #166,720
7/29/04 10:16:58 PM
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Re: Peopleware lists an interesting experiment on that
Plato considered music as almost evil, that it would inflame the passions and cloud the mind:
[link|http://www.tesc.edu/~rprice/platomus.htm|http://www.tesc.edu/~rprice/platomus.htm]
-drl
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Post #166,729
7/30/04 12:22:05 AM
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I buy that
If I'm coding something and I know where I'm going - putting on a really grooving playlist will result in me banging the thing out in record time.
But I can't create like that - I often need to get out of the usual environment and sit with pad of paper and pencil to work things out. Don't need a computer when doing deep conceptualization.
Actually, taking a shower or hitting the hot tub often helps here.
That was lovely cheese.
--Wallace, The Wrong Trousers
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Post #166,730
7/30/04 12:26:48 AM
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night
I can't do physics during the day. Don't know why.
I tend not to care about ambience, as long as I'm comfortable.
-drl
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Post #166,736
7/30/04 1:11:55 AM
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*That's* what's missing from my office--a hot tub!
"Despite the seemingly endless necessity for doing
so, it's actually not possible to reverse-engineer intended invariants
from staring at thousands of lines of code (not in C, and not in
Python code either)." Tim Peters on python-dev
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Post #166,770
7/30/04 12:03:13 PM
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My last SF job was next to health club
And HR negotiated cheap memberships for employees - and since I was living on a boat at the time I joined largely to have another shower I could use. But I also found the steam room useful for having a think.
That was lovely cheese.
--Wallace, The Wrong Trousers
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Post #166,715
7/29/04 10:02:37 PM
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Keep in mind also
One thing to keep in mind when comparing these sorts of stories is that studied have shown that any change in a work environment is liable to increase productivity over the short term. The break in the old patterns of working tends to make people think and concentrate on their work more, which causes a short term rise in production.*
Jay
* And before some PHP thinks about it, it doesn't work over the long term. After a enough changes in short a short period of time the employees are numb to the changes and output will fall even further.
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Post #166,718
7/29/04 10:11:27 PM
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Ah yes, the infamous Hawthorne effect
To deny the indirect purchaser, who in this case is the ultimate purchaser, the right to seek relief from unlawful conduct, would essentially remove the word consumer from the Consumer Protection Act
- [link|http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=1246&Page=1&pagePos=20|Nebraska Supreme Court]
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