@thudfactor hah yea - it started out that way the first few days for me as well, but I do think what saved me when I worked in an open environment was my gaming headset and the fact I was almost always incredibly busy deep coding; to get my attention someone would usually have to slack me anyway
Besides my touch of claustrophobia, I think my memories of the "tall cube" experience were also a bit tainted by the places I work being kind of a mess