The Code Whisperer

Since 1981, aside from my own office at Operations Support, I’ve seen a very few outstanding offices and some some OK offices, but most have been very bad from a productivity point of view. As the office environment is an important aspect of developing high quality software, I was very interested in a recent article by Joel Spolsky in Inc magazine

You can read the entire article called How Hard Could it Be?: Adventures in Office Space, but this bit really caught my eye:

“There will be a reception area with a dry creek of stones and pebbles and plants that will make a great first impression on our guests. There will be a big lunchroom, because we all eat together, as well as a coffee bar, a lounge, a 180-gallon saltwater aquarium, the aforementioned shower, a library with reclining chairs for naps, two private meeting rooms, 20 private offices for programmers, 23 adjustable-height workstations for everyone else, Wi-Fi, a big screen for movies and video games, and enough glass to build the world’s largest ant farm. We will have some room to grow, finally. And in two years, if all goes well, it will be too small for us.”

Joel explains that he needs developers of the caliber that could choose to work at Google or Microsoft so needs an office environment that is as good as, or better, that these two software giants. Sounds like he’s done it.