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The Bionic Office
hondo77 writes "Joel Spolsky has finally moved Fog Creek Software into their new digs. Read about what went into the design of "the ultimate software development environment" from your (my) cube and drool."
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My biggest pet peeve at the office is having almost no room between the table and wall to get a power plug through. I'm sometimes bashing the plug(or the ferrite core) behind the table so I can get it to the outlet or Ethernet port.
All cubicle tables should have a notch cut out for this purpose.
Now I see why they could not afford a 17" PB (or even a 12" PB). That's gotta suck programming around all day on a tangerine iBook.
Looks like a great set-up, but you'd have to start your own company to have a set up like this. Who on earth would pay for such an office? Not that I'm bitching, my office at work is great, but jesus H. christ those offices look like Futureland on crack.
Or just drop acid. Cheaper long term. And the walls will also smile at you and occasionally dance.
1) Big window overlooking moutain range or lake
2) Ethernet jack built into wall
3) Large, multipart desk
4) Large, swiveling, high-backed chair
5) Carpet
6) Door that can be shut
7) Glass window to see who is knocking at the door
- Office doors are helpful
- It's easier to read someone's screen when sitting beside them, than when shoulder-surfing
- Natural light is good
- Window view is nice
- Programmers like foosball and other dot-com era goodies
I must have missed the "bionic" part.
One thing I've noticed, of which this article is a very good example, is how most everyone who hires software developers claims to be hiring (or at least looking for) the very best of the best.
'We have an elite team'.
'On a scale of one to ten, all our developers are at least a nine.'
'We hire only the top two percent.'
And of course in this article Joel kicks it up a notch by claiming to be after the 99.9th percentile. Makes you whether the industry is vastly deluded as to the actual abilities of those they hire...
Pixar's environment to this place.
f ri day.asp
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/May/05302003/friday/
But it's still nicer than my old cubicle. I'm pretty thankful that I work out of my apartment now.
Alex.
Where does bionic come in? I presumed bionic was an electronic or electromechanical supplement to an individual or being. Not an environment.
That said, these are pretty cool digs and I agree completely with this statement from the article: Hey, this is my job; this is where I spend my days; it's my time away from my friends and family. It better be nice.
I have a couple of windows I can look down on the city in the valley from my workstation. It's pretty nice to get natural light and to be able to focus on something farther away than the computer screen or the lab bench from time to time. Looking out over the valley, I've seen U2's flying up the valley, I saw the space shuttle on the back of its 747 take off from the airport on the other side of the valley and I've seen a cool tornado.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
I have asked developers who worked for me to work those kinds of ridiculous hours before, and I've asked it of myself, mostly because I was forced to by forces outside of my control. These days I prefer to operate under the assumption that work should be scheduled around a 40-50 hour work week, and the office/working environment should be a nice and pleasant one, but it shouldn't supercede home, and you shouldn't have to eat dinner at work every day, spend all your free time with your co-workers, etc.
The only reason this article is newsworthy is because of Dot Bomb flashback syndrome. We'd all like to live in the magical world where employers spend tonnes on us because we're so damned valuable. The article seems to suggest it's cost effective to spend a lot of money to get the 99.9th percentile of coder, but is it really? Are you really just getting the 85% percentile of coder, but calling them the 99.9th percent to foster a sense of l33tness?
I mean it's a nice office and all, but this isn't really news. It's one guy who made a cool office.
Not much chance any of us will be getting cool offices any time soon.
---
I support spreading santorum
And before you mod me flamebait, try asking yourself what is so great, exciting or thought-provoking about the article.
.. there wasn't a single coffee machine ... do they really expect a programmer to work without coffee ?
What I found thought-provoking
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Well, we all know how good Philip Greenspun is at running a business.
The third option is to forget about the office and let people work out of their home ...
When you start your own company your first desk should be an old door propped up with a couple of old milk crates. You have more important things to spend your money on when you start up.
If more "dot coms" had understood that instead of burning their money on fancy digs, pool tables and Porsches a few more of them might still be around.
Oh yeah, and clear idea of how you're going to make a profit to earn fancy desks, chairs and cars wouldn't be a bad idea either.
KFG
I think part of what's revolutionary about it is a manager making a rational economic argument for why it is worthwhile to spend this kind of money on giving developers a nice work area, and then putting their money where their mouth is (damn english, lacking proper indirect third-person singular pronoun).
It would be nice if my company could see things this way, instead of making lame-ass defeneses that "We can't treat the programmers specially, when there are non-programming paper-pushing staff right down the hall. If they get cubicles, we can't give you nice offices. While we agree that you *deserve* better, they'll get pissed off at the disparity." Hell, they probably tell those people "We really can't do better for you... I mean, we *already* treat you as well as the programmers!"
<aside>
By the way, the word is "color", friend. KIDDING!
</aside>
:Wq
Not an editor command: Wq
I worked for a place with all these amenities plus the view was of the ocean. That's right...we were 6 feet from white sand and blue waves.
At first, the space was incredible, the free drinks, groovy toys, and high-powered colleagues were great. Everyone got along and the work being done was of the highest quality. Everything was humming along.
What the struggle became however was burnout. While it seems really groovy to have all kinds of cool things they were all just ways to keep us there rather than being at home with our families. Sure we would frag a little, have a beer, and hang out for an hour a day. We'd also end up leaving the office well after most of our families had gone to bed.
There's nothing about this article worthy of my praise. This is old hat and not as well thought out as it's made out to be--in the end this crew will be no more or less productive, happy, or able than all the other companies like mine that failed doing the same thing.
Of course we torture people, we need the information --Gen. Pinochet
What wouldn't I give to have a window and a door! I sometimes hang awake at nights dreaming of having a window and a door.
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
"Your business success will depend on the extent to which programmers essentially live at your office. For this to be a common choice, your office had better be nicer than the average programmer's home."
What crap! The best office I've ever had is the one I have now - a home office. Any employer that sucks the marrow out of their staff by having them work 90 hours a week will only burn their staff out.
Maybe I won't create the greatest apps overnight, but next week is just fine. Plus I have a healthy relationship with my 2 year old son, a beautiful wife, and another child on the way. I love programming, and having worked with computers for over 20 years. Because I take care of my health and mind, I'll still be here 20 years from now while slave drivers like Joel Spolsky have moved on to greener pastures with other anti-human ideals.
The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
Ruby on Rails Screencast
- Front door. How do people get in? Not very productive.
- Bathroom. Seriously, not one commode in any of those photos. Less of a problem if there's no coffee machine, I guess.
- Air. I didn't see any air molecules in the photographs, either. Coding without breathing is hard! (Although sometimes necessary; see pair programming.)
</smartass>If you don't have the crocs, the people just lollygag down in the pit, moaning and yelling for help.
It's animal and environmentally friendly. The croc droppings can be used to fertilize your organic garden. And as they age: shoes.
Having participated in several office renovations and build-outs over the past few years, I found this article quite interesting.
I was particularly impressed by the archtectural solution of angling the offices (requires wasting some space) to effectively get windows on two different walls in every office.
The "cable trough" along the back of the desks is a deceptively simple idea, but one that seldom gets implemented. We put something similar down the center of our conference tables, which made supporting laptop-laden meetings infinitely easier. It's unclear from the photo if there are cutouts to also allow cables to run under the desk. If not, that's the one important modification I'd add, as it is often neccessary to place an electric or electronic device on the floor.
The other thing that was of particular interest was his comments about using straight desktops in order to make it easier for people to collaborate. I've definately noticed the 'squeezing around the corner monitor' problem, but hadn't thought of encouraging a different monitor/desk configuration to address it.
Still, it's always nice to see people/companies actually thinking about their architecture, and fitting technology comfortably into it, when they get the chance.
Joel is probably one of the only people that can attract the top 0.1%.
Reasons:
1) high visibility with his blog & columns in various magazines
2) Downtown NY & salaries to match
3) Office with a door
4) Boss is a programmer, not an MBA
5) smart coworkers
6) 6 weeks vacation
7) lots of other stuff, read his site
I might be wrong about that 6 weeks vacation thing, the only reference I found on his site was when he was talking about hiring European developers.
Note to managers: 6 weeks vacation is an absolute kicker of an incentive. It's cheap too. If you can't keep a company going without "key personnel", you've got bigger problems, and I don't want to work there.
Bryan
...we'll be able to buy all this stuff on E-Bay in a year!
But it's not that expensive. He write that the price per developer is 700$/Month. I don't know the price of a typical offices, but even if a normal offices only cost half that much, I think that the 350$/Month per developer is a good deal, which will pay back.
I was out of programing for a while, and to pay the bills I went into construction. I had a beatiful office then: outside with fresh air. I got to play with toys all day. (saws and nailers mostly, but once in a while I could attempt to get the 4 wheel drive forklift stuck) I hated it. Oh, I like working with my hands and building things, but I don't like doing it all day. I several times found myself standing on a 2x4 20 feet in the air and wishing I was anywhere else, (preferably the ground) while the other guy ran across the other wall and then teased me for not being at the other end already. I had to listen to the radio station the foreman picked. Then I finially got home after working 10 hours, and was dead tired. Even when I had a moment free, I couldn't pick up my mandolin because my body hurt too much.
I'm now back in programing, and I love it. I get paid to read code all day. I sit inside an office (with a window that I never look out of) that is air conditioned. I write code! They pay me to write code! Once in a while I have to test my code, and that isn't nearly as much fun, but my job is writing code. I work less hours. I can choose my radio station, or bring my own CDs, or work in silence, my choice. When I get home I can play mandolin without pain.
To each his own. I've tried your plan. The work was different, but I didn't like it.