I don't know really. Several years ago, I got to visit Groupon HQ in Chicago (yes, really! :). I'm an 2nd generation computer person - I started using them in very late 70s and working professionally with them in the middle of the 80s, and even though I was a part of the .com boom, I've been away from that sort of world for decades. Wandering around that place for several hours my main though was "wow, how does anyone ever actually get any work done in this environment, which seems to be designed to encourage people to spend their whole day engaging with other people".
I once visited the opening of a new library, and found myself getting outraged when I looked around at the desks and sitting areas and places where one was supposed to be able to sit down and read a book ---- they were all totally exposed to visibility by everyone else in the entire room in such a way that I knew I could never be comfortable reading a book in this library. And that made me very angry. Yet the fault is somehow mine, as this FISHBOWL architecture is cool and all the rage. Guess I have to take the book home if I want to read it without being WATCHED.
