I only quickly glanced at it and thought it was a sweatshop in Bangladesh; I then had to look again because that didn't seem to match the headline of the article or what I'd remembered clicking on from HN. I think it's possibly the ceiling (what is that?) or the things suspended from it that creates this impression (and it's probably an unflattering photograph), but honestly it looks like a perfect nightmare to me.
I'm sitting on one right now (not a FB one), while knowing full well how expensive they are - what I can never understand is /why/ they are so expensive - I can't say its noticeably more comfortable than any other office chair I've used.
They're adjustable (so aerons can be at least ok for ~everyone), and durable, and pieces can be replaced. It's like commercial kitchens vs. home chef -- more expensive, but flexible, and meeting a lot of standards/requirements which make sense in commercial settings but not in one-off settings.
There's probably a $100-200 chair of some design which works better for each individual than the $1000 aeron; it's just a different $100-200 chair for each person. And it probably will not last 7 years in daily hard use.
They're quite comfortable if you get the right size and adjust it as you like.
Also build quality is a big part of it. I'm sitting on one I bought 10 years ago and it's still showing no signs of giving up. Meanwhile during that time a friend of mine has thrown out 3 ~$200 chairs already.
Same here. I recently had the epiphany that there was definitely an deeply aestethic side in software development
which you would use to determine intuitively what a good design is, and since aesthetic is something you learn from your context, the environment you're evolving in has a direct influence on your ability to make good design ( something that designers in every field have known for a long time, of course).
Now imagine the kind of chaotic influence this messy office has on facebook code designers... My guess is that the best technologies aren't developped there.
