I went to a "Clojure Dojo" at the ThoughtWorks London office on Monday night. It's interesting to see how other software development houses run, even knowing that there will be a certain amount of "presentation" -- after all, that's why they've invited developers from all over London, right? Regardless, the fact is both a work colleague and I couldn't help but be impressed.The building is in the heart of the West End, surrounded by old theatres and narrow laneways filled with funky music shops, cafes and vegetarian health bars. Inside, a narrow entrance hall with security at the far end and elevators lining the walls -- we jump in the first available and head up to the ninth floor.Open-plan! Views over the city! Wifi access! Table foot-ball! Beer! It doesn't take much to impress me, and the instant they brought out a plastic bucket full of ice and beer was pretty much my own personal nirvana/nibbana.(We're not exactly slumming it here, but there is definitely a value in making things a) look nice and b) easily accessible -- our table football is up a level, for example. And let's not get started on the cabling situation.)The Dojo itself was a neat idea: a quick overview of the Clojure language, then a shared laptop for the group to solve a problem on. We took turns in pair-programming, along with suggestions from the crowd watching via a projector. It was fun, but with no LISP experience I was barely following at the best of times, and I think it perhaps could've been more informal -- I would've like to see little individual conversations, people circulating, drinking, eating pizza, along with the pair programming. I don't know, maybe not possible.All-in-all it's got me thinking about what we would need to do here to make it almost as cool a place to work. And reading Raymond Smullyan's "To Mock A Mockingbird" again, this time in front of a Clojure REPL session.