Of needing quiet space at work

PH, the new guy, has lend me a book Joel on Software (by Joel Spolsky) which I force myself to read every morning 1/2 hour in the office before I do anything else. Thank PH! Looks like it's going to be a good read. I'm currently on how to find great developers chapter. So the book basically lists down what are the things developers usually look for in an employer. One of them, surprise surprise, is private offices. Of course not many company can do this for many reasons, and not every developers care about it, but I find myself relating to that topic quite easily.

Private offices deemed to increase a developer's productivity, and by private he means a room with closed door, has window, and has a nice view. I think traditional employers will see that as just too much and that it will spoil their employees rotten. Well, see, private offices for developers is kinda new concept here in Malaysia (I guess?) and sometimes it's not totally in our hands - sometimes the people up there will think it's a waste of money. You know what, whatever, it feels so nice to be backed up like that coz I did blog about this last time. So you know I'm not crazy. Just a moment ago I felt like giving my thoughts on this but may come out so biased as I will talk from employee's point of view so for the time being I'll just keep it to myself.

There's one thing in the book that has caught my eyes. It is mentioned very briefly in one line and Joel didn't elaborate more on it. He said putting on headphones to drown out the ambient noises around will actually reduce the quality of work a programmer produces. I somehow agree with this. It rings true - I only listen to music when doing routine tasks like updating weekly report, or very mundane ones like graphic designing, you know, things that doesn't really use up that part of my brain that much.

That bleep bleep noise coming out from colleagues' machines at work is really something are they. Not that I'm pissed or anything, it's just as disturbing at times. I am so glad I can move around the office and still can do my work.