Unhappy developers lead to bad code and bad processes
Since Epicurus wrote in the third century BC about pain and pleasure, happiness and unhappiness has been a constant subject of conversation. Recently researchers from the University of Stuttgart studied the effects of software developers’ state of happiness on performance and found unhappy developers negatively affect the development process and software products.
This might explain why some software companies treat their development teams to pingpong tables, foosball, cappuccino machines and other perks.
A clearer understanding could lead to successful intervention, more effective than those perks, and (depending upon the costs) astonishing productivity benefits.Though not mentioned by the researchers, it sounds very similar to the work of author and TED Talk speaker Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his ideas about creating conditions that lead to a flow state, also called the zone of deep concentration, and undistracted, peak performance.
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