On: “Today we moved into our new Facebook building”

[phildougherty]

The collaboration that an open floor plan is supposed to promote has for me more or less translated to 'i can clearly see you so that is an open invitation to come interrupt you'. For me it's mostly that plus the constant movement in your peripheral vision nearby and far away that makes it bad.

[moe → phildougherty]

the constant movement in your peripheral vision nearby and far away that makes it bad.

It's not just you, that stuff is in our biology.

Even worse than motion in your peripheral vision is activity behind your back (e.g. people walking by).

Unknown action (sound/vibrations) behind our back triggers our flight reflex, which is very hard to suppress.