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Every Wednesday is Tip Day.

Secrets of Adulthood.

  • The best reading is re-reading.
  • Outer order contributes to inner calm.
  • The opposite of a great truth is also true.
  • You manage what you measure.
  • By doing a little bit each day, you can get a lot accomplished.
  • People don’t notice your mistakes and flaws as much as you think.
  • It's nice to have plenty of money.
  • Most decisions don't require extensive research.
  • Try not to let yourself get too hungry.
  • Even if you think they're fake, it's nice to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day.
  • If you can't find something, clean up.
  • The days are long, but the years are short.
  • Someplace, keep an empty shelf.
  • Turning the computer on and off a few times often fixes a glitch.
  • It's okay to ask for help.
  • You can choose what you do; you can't choose what you LIKE to do.
  • Happiness doesn't always make you feel happy.
  • What you do EVERY DAY matters more than what you do ONCE IN A WHILE.
  • You don't have to be good at everything.
  • Soap and water removes most stains.
  • It's important to be nice to EVERYONE.
  • You know as much as most people.
  • Over-the-counter medicines are very effective.
  • Eat better, eat less, exercise more.
  • What's fun for other people may not be fun for you--and vice versa.
  • People actually prefer that you buy wedding gifts off their registry.
  • Houseplants and photo albums are a lot of trouble.
  • If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough.
  • No deposit, no return.

Happiness theories I reject.

  • Flaubert: "To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless."
  • Vauvenargues: “There are men who are happy without knowing it.”
  • Eric Hoffer: “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”
  • Sartre: "Hell is other people."
  • Willa Cather: “One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them…”
  • Alexander Smith: “We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.”
  • John Stuart Mill: “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.”
  • G.K. Chesterton: “Happiness is a mystery, like religion, and should never be rationalised.”
  • Solon: “Let no man be called happy before his death. Till then, he is not happy, only lucky.”

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This Wednesday: a quiz--is your workspace driving you crazy?

OfficeEvery Wednesday is Tip Day—or quiz day.
This Wednesday’s Quiz: Is the design of your office slowly driving you crazy?

I’ve been reading the strange, brilliant, fascinating book, A Pattern Language: Towns, Building Construction. It uses architecture, sociology, psychology, and anthropology to describe the most satisfying architectural environments.

Of course, I know nothing about this subject, so anyone who knows this field, or the history of this book, may consider my enthusiasm naïve and uninformed. But I don’t care. What the authors describe resonates with me completely. I crave the Sitting Wall, the Front Door Bench, the Child Caves, the Sequence of Sitting Spaces, the Sleeping to the East!

The authors also discuss commercial spaces and offices. Are you being driven mad at work by misplaced walls or the wrong kinds of noise? Take this quiz to see how your office measures up.

According to A Pattern Language: Towns, Building Construction, you’ll be comfortable in your workspace when:

 there’s a wall behind you (so no one can sneak up behind you).
 there’s a wall to one side (too much openness makes you feel exposed).
 there’s no blank wall within 8 feet in front of you (or you have no place to rest your eyes).
 you work in at least 60 square feet (or you feel cramped).
 your workspace is 50-75% enclosed by walls or windows (so you have a feeling of openness).
 you have a view to the outside (no matter how large your office, you will feel confined in a room without a view).
 you are aware of at least 2 other people, but not more than 8 people, around you (less than 2, you feel isolated and ignored; more than 8, you feel like a cog in a machine).
 you can’t hear workplaces noises that are very different from the kind of noises you make at work (you concentrate better when the people around you are engaged in similar tasks, not very different tasks).
 no one is sitting directly opposite you and facing you.
 you can face in different directions at different times.
 you can see at least 2 other people, but not more than 4.
 you have at least one co-worker within talking distance.
 to make the space more attractive, incorporate Windows Overlooking Life, a Half-Open Wall, Thick Walls, Open Shelves, Pools of Light (over the workspace), and a nearby Sitting Circle.

The more elements you checked off, the more inviting your office should feel. Most of us can't change much about the design of our offices, but these criteria at least furnish a few ideas.

September 20, 2006 |

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Comments

This is a good quiz! But you want to be careful how you read that book. Towards the start, they call out that it is _a_ pattern language, not _the_ pattern language. At the start of a big project, they would talk to the customers for that project and identify some patterns good for that customer. Each project ends up with its own pattern language.

If you want to be really rigorous, you should ask yourself and your office visitors: what are the qualities that make one office better than another? And does this office have those qualities? That's a lot of trouble, though.

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This is a very interesting post. Think I'll check that book out too!

Posted by: Amberla | March 09, 2009 at 05:03 PM

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