I draw things! I bet we all draw things, but I still think it counts as nerdy.

...unless you draw UML diagrams on whiteboards. Doesn't count.

... unless you draw stick figures battling ON those UML diagrams. Counts.

... unless those stick figures battling demonstrate dependencies or demographics. Doesn't count.

... unless you put little pirate hats on them. Counts.

... unless you're contracting for a Somali counter-piracy recon project. Doesn't count.

... unless you also include dank memes. Counts.

So, now that companies are used to "WFH", maybe we can agree upon a better office for tech companies?

I do actually think the more "ideal" tech company office wouldn't have to be expensive.

It can be smaller. Any tech company worth it's salt should have discovered in the last few months that it's not just devs who can work from home. Sales, support, management — you really don't need to fight your way through highway traffic or cram yourself into a sweaty subway every day.

There's value in having an office. Not everyone can fit a good workspace in their apartment.

But we could at least center it around:

1. A bunch of small, completely soundproof isolation booths, for those who need a focus space, and can't find a silent spot at home.

2. A social lounge space, a communal living room with couches, a bar, creative relaxing stuff, whiteboards, etc. WFH can become depressing even for the most antisocial employees, chilling on a couch with some coworkers to brainstorm ideas or chat about random tech is valuable for building good relationships with your team.

The "open plan office" with rows of desks and monitors, no matter how luxuriously decorated with vertical gardens and hipster desks from reclaimed wood, can go die a fiery painful death.

I either want to work, or socialize.

Open plan offices (and it's even more dystopian suicide-inducing cousin, the cubicle) are like being unable to choose between fucking and a blowjob, so you end up humping a navel.

Oh, and conference rooms, go fuck yourself as well. I want to be able to minimize your ugly face if you plan to talk about company financial reports for 2 hours.

Went for a job interview today, and learned something very important about myself...

...that I should be permanently banned from writing code on whiteboards, for any reason. I have never seen such ugly code in my entire life. Ugh...

This wasn't an actual interview, it was a nightmare I had before an interview.

So how many whiteboards do you have at home? We are whiteboard exclusive developers. If you take this job would you like a tabletop whiteboard or a wall mounted whiteboard.

Nope, definitely not going to work for that customer anymore. Fuck this shit. At least for this week.

My background: mid-30 years old, some kind of business & IT consultant / lead dev working for a mid sized CRM consulting company, with approx 15 years of experience in development and software architecture, most of the time "thinking" in C#, still learning new languages, being a cloud evangelist and team lead. We usually have customers with customers (B2B/B2C).
Personality type "campaigner" (ENFP-A).

Today the project lead of my client (a big corporation in the energy industry) told me that he still didn't order all the necessary resources for the cloud project. Just to be clear: He's on the client side. We (the architects, one internal and me) told him one month ago what we need for the beginning. Just a few things - an Azure subscription, a license for the CRM platform, and our dev tools.

And now let's guess when the project is planned to begin? Yeah, right: 1st of April. NO APRIL'S FOOL. And guess what? Next Tuesday we'll do the onboarding for the new (external) devs, and NOTHING will be ready. Yeah, just let us build stuff in our minds, and on the whiteboards, because it's an AGILE project, right? We don't need any systems and tools...

And now he sent me the questionnaires which need to be answered before any cloud service can be ordered by the corporate IT. And yes, he didn't answer a single thing, and just meant "Those are architecture questions" (they are not) and (of course) "please provide the answers until Monday morning, so we can FINALLY order the services."

Yeah, you fucktard. Of course it's MY FAULT now. Maybe I should write an email to your boss asking how we can speed things up a little bit...

A colleague just committed his username and password in git. When I kindly informed him, he told me that there are a lot of things on whiteboards around the office that should not be there. Oh, if that's the case, committing your credentials to git is fine.

We all make mistakes. But your response to them is everything.

I've tried so many ways for that at night or during walk spark of bug solving ideas:

- fluorescent ink on regular paper
- florescent mini whiteboards
- "alexa remind me.."
- writing down in my phone
- recording on my phone
-..

But all of those due to my short term memory made me forget half the things by the time I opened the fucking phone/app, found where to grab the pen or the whole dance for alexa, to remember the exact phrase I have to spell out, when it should remind me, what time,..

Earlier today I remembered how I had a little tape voice recorder I used to use a ton, thankfully that tech advanced by now and found myself a stereo mic setup little voice recorder that can also act as an mp3 player!

Went for a walk today, while listening to some podcasts, then it hit me as usual on how to fix and implement some things that were awkward at best on paper when I left home, pressed the record button, recorded it and went straight back to music mode, which remembered where I left off!

I'm so indescribably happy, I ordered quite a bunch of the same to just throw around everywhere, at the bed, in the bathroom, kitchen, for walking outside, everywhere haha

wow. I, do, not, want, to work today at all.

I don't think I've ever felt this strongly about first day back to work before.

Guess the previous job was actually interesting :(

I even went to the office on NYD just to do some heads down coding. (but ended up doodling on everyone's empty whiteboards)

I get alone with a big empty room, clean desk, and lots of whiteboards. Which means never, alas.

One of the guys I go to college with asked me for help. I took one look and saw his variable names...
int numberOfCarsInParkingLotSinceLastChecked = 0;
Explained the issue. Or tried. He kept interrupting to ask me about random nonsense ("Would you walk naked into walmart for $500?"). Got fed up, told him to work on it my own.
Fast forward 2 years, and he's erasing my group's planning on whiteboards with "SAVE" on them. Week after week.
I hate that guy.

I love how devrant spreads at the office. See, no one wants to tell anyone about you since everyone wants to claim your rants as their own. But those who know, recognize the gifs as they spread across whiteboards, doors and channels nodding to each other with a secret smile.

I can't choose just one so here are my favorite desk things...
In order of appearance:

Coffee, because no dev can dev without.

Mini whiteboards, (one on each side), makes for easy quick notes and helps me organize my thoughts.

Legos, specifically #4070 because of its intriguing geometrics. Tearing them apart and making different shapes helps me think through problems.

Code keyboard, pure excellence.

Logitech MX master mouse, same as above.

I have a question about the life as a developer in a big, open office. I'm a relatively active thinker and have to walk around, draw on whiteboards, etc. to get a better outlook on my problem.
What do I do in a big office with mutliple people? I can't just stand up and walk around or write/draw on a whiteboard all the time.
Has anyone experienced the same and knows what to do? I'd like to prepare for a life in the office.