Meta Rediscovers the Cubicle – Cal Newport
Again in 2016, I reported on a rumor that was circulating about worker dissatisfaction at Meta (then, Fb). Builders, it appeared, have been sad with the corporate’s stylish, but additionally unbearably noisy and distracting, 8-acre open workplace flooring plan.
“Builders want to pay attention,” defined an amused Joel Spolsky at a convention that 12 months, earlier than occurring so as to add that Fb was paying a 40 – 50% premium for expertise as a result of individuals didn’t wish to work beneath these circumstances. A commentator on my essay pointed to a podcast episode the place Fb insiders declare that the open workplace was by no means greater than 30% occupied. “Apparently, nearly all of people who work there be sure that they’re away from their desk when they should get work achieved,” he defined.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal last month, it appears to be like like Meta is lastly able to do one thing about this self-inflicted downside. After hiring a elaborate design agency and dealing by way of a number of concepts and prototypes they landed on an revolutionary answer: cubicles.
(To be honest, the corporate takes pains to argue that their answer is not cubicles, as a result of, properly, the partitions are curved, and they’re made out of fancier, sound-absorbing supplies. Positive. Okay…)
I, for one, am happy by this information. The open workplace increase is true up there with the unfold of Slack as representing the height of early twenty first century distraction tradition — a interval wherein the information sector fully disregarded any realities about how human brains really go concerning the troublesome process of making worth by way of cogitation. The truth that Meta is closing the e-book on its ill-fated open workplace experiment is probably a glimmer of hope that we’re shifting towards a deeper future
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In different information…
On Monday, Scott Younger and I are re-opening our fashionable on-line course, Lifetime of Focus, which mixes concepts from Deep Work, Digital Minimalism, and Scott’s wonderful e-book, Ultralearning. For individuals who have an interest, registration might be open Monday till Friday at the course site.
A fast phrase of warning: I’m going to ship three quick emails concerning the course all through the week, so be prepared for that. (Every such message may even features a hyperlink on the backside you may click on to opt-out of any future communication concerning the course. )