So on a team with roughly half introverts and half extroverts, you'd expect it to be a wash - only it's not, because there's a low ceiling to how much productivity you can add, and the noise from the productive extroverts drives introverts' productivity into the floor. It's net negative.

It sounds like the very easy solution is to let the extroverts work together and let the introverts work in private.

Your post is a valid criticism of forcing introverts to work in open offices, but it isn't a valid criticism of letting extroverts work in open offices.

How do you measure your productivity?

What do you attribute to your increase in productivity in an open floor plan?

> How do you measure your productivity?

The same way everyone measures productivity: subjectively. With software development, measuring productivity objectively is very much an unsolved problem (which is one of the major problems with studies on productivity of different floor plans, incidentally).

> What do you attribute to your increase in productivity in an open floor plan?

1. Generally feeling happier, more energized, and more focused (I'm an extrovert). When I work alone I find myself getting restless, irritable, and distracted.

2. Collaboration. Catching mistakes, soliciting creative ideas, getting information when I don't know something. But really #1 is a much bigger factor for me.

What specific work do you do?

Software development.

How does an open space office improve vs working in a single office?

For me, it's mainly that I'm happier, more energized, and more focused. I can point to collaboration effects, but really that's less important for my personal productivity I think.

Just to be clear: I'm not saying an open office is right for everyone. If an open office isn't right for you, then you should be able to work in a private space. I'm just asking that you offer me the same courtesy. There's no reason we have to force everyone to work in the same style of office, when everyone has different working styles.