
Rands in Repose: Managing Nerds - filament
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2011/01/17/managing_nerds.html
======
cagenut
Its interesting how Rands and Joel agree on the basic
quiet/dark/cave/hoodie/headphones "zone" construct, and yet nearly every
startup I've visited or seen office pictures of on their website insists on a
faux-egalitarian setup where everyone sits in one giant noisy room.

~~~
InclinedPlane
It's the classic demo vs. reality problem (or hollywood vs. reality problem).
What looks cool for short periods of time often doesn't match what is actually
useful for 2,000 hours per year.

An IDE that displays code on the sides of rotating icosahedrons looks really
cool for about 3 seconds, but is hugely impractical in reality. Similarly,
giant noisy rooms seem more interesting in pictures and in planning but in
practice are less useful than individual walled offices.

One of the great things about individual offices in terms of facilitating
collaboration is that it actually makes it far easier to have impromptu
meetings between a small number of people. In cubicles people tend to avoid
such things since the noise is disruptive to others and there's not much room
for people, with offices you can close the door and have 3 or 4 people in a
single office without much problem or much impact on others. There are many
other examples.

~~~
waqf
If cubes for software engineers are such a bad idea why does Google (so I've
heard) swear by them?

~~~
hugh3
Well for starters, the alternative of giving everyone a private office is
really really expensive. Especially if you're also (like me) a believer in the
idea that offices should have windows. I had my own windowless office for a
year or so, and it was a really depressing environment in which to work -- I
much prefer my current two-person office with a view.

The other point is that while an individual programmer might be more
productive when he's alone in a room, a _group_ might be more productive if
they're all in the same room together. No point in having everyone write twice
as much code per day if the code no longer fits together and nobody has any
idea what everybody else is doing.

How much of a programmer's time is actually spent sitting down in full-on
focus mode belting out lines of code?

~~~
zeemonkee
Of course a cheaper option is to allow remote working to those who want it, at
least for most days of the week. Use the office for client meetings and the
occasional get-together. That way I get to have my private office with a
window, coffee machine, private snack bar, XBox console and anything else I
want, and it doesn't cost you a penny.

Besides, groups of developers in large open source projects, distributed
around the world, seem to manage fine.

~~~
jamii
On the other hand, being in the same room all day all week can be incredibly
depressing. I've done it in the past and prefer any kind of office to working
at home for extended periods.

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dinedal
As I sit in my cube, mandated business attire donned, bright fluorescent
lights flickering above me, and listening to the constant drone that is the
heating system, I read this article and utter a small prayer. That somehow,
somewhere, someone who actually manages developers reads this blog, and hires
me.

~~~
kingnothing
If anyone is in Atlanta or willing to relocate, we're always hiring Ruby
engineers or smart hackers who will learn Ruby and Rails. No dress code and
we're getting rid of most of the fluorescent lights. We have fun problems and
work with a respectable amount of traffic and data. Shoot me an email; the
info is in my profile.

~~~
epochwolf
I looked at your profile and I didn't find any information. You will need to
put your email address in the about field for it to show up.

~~~
kingnothing
Fixed. I swear I did that right before that last post though.

~~~
alnayyir
Happens to the best of us mate. I have double-take moments like that with my
work all the time.

Makes me paran^H^H^H^H^Hcautious.

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theDoug
I'm often poor with my communication (in terms of: clarity, consideration, and
courtesy), but when a new piece from Rands comes out I consistently find
myself forwarding it or printing it for a loved one and saying "This is what I
try to mean when I say ___________"

His Nerd Handbook
([http://randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbo...](http://randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html))
quite likely saved my relationship with a highly non-technical increasingly
significant other. I owe the man a bunch.

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tomhallett
Wow, he hit the nail on the head with the "hoodie" concept. I almost feel like
it gives me a power boost.

~~~
jallmann
No kidding. I like coding with a hoodie over my head, literally. Never thought
about why, but now I know.

~~~
pavel_lishin
My big headphones are my hoodie. I could be completely alone, with no ambient
noise, and I still put them on. Sometimes they're not even plugged in. My
coworker does the same thing.

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alxp
I normally find articles with titles like that painfully condescending, but
this was quite well-done and worth a read.

~~~
runevault
The thing to remember is, he came up through the ranks to became a manager,
and seems to be one that decided to put the energy he used to into learning
new tech/coding techniques/etc into becoming a good manager.

If you've not read anything from his blog before, it's worth at least skimming
back through the archives to see what tickles your fancy. He's got some VERY
good articles.

~~~
steveklabnik
It's his current knot he's untying...

~~~
runevault
Funny, I failed to tie it back into his post, but that is the perfect way to
look at it.

It does make me wonder how many different knots are common for one to be
attacking at any given time (not moment, just in general).

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zemanel
this article is the "Boyfriend Operational Manual" my girlfriend has been
looking for for months!

EDIT: i'm wearing my hoodie, yo!

