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I Only Work Remotely

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Re: I Only Work Remotely

#31

Post by battlebot »

bitwize wrote: post #18

Don't you just love it when someone with zero direct reports thinks he can tell managers how to manage? It's a job , it's not a fucking Montessori school, or a correspondence course. If you don't want your employability to dry up once rockstar ninjas become commonplace enough that the demand bubble for them pops, you will cultivate the essential skills of showing up when and where your employer demands and otherwise…

I get what you're selling, and I agree to a point, especially about the "being dependable" part, which is why I have been that. On the other hand, my experience with my own creativity is that it peaks around midnight. I wrote my doctoral dissertation over many, many nights. I was never creative in the morning, and I think many people are just like me and don't even realize it. Thus, if you really want the best I have to offer, you would allow me to set my own schedule.

Re: I Only Work Remotely

#32

Post by jp555 »

battlebot wrote: post #29
kdelano wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my part, after taking THC(tincture) I "get creative" on architecture solutions, new feature ideation, and things like that. I generally keep any code I write during this time in a separate branch to code review while sober before merging in - it's the ideas that are most important, not the actual code.

Maybe try not using drugs as a crutch? It reminds me of a perverse version of what athletes use steroids for. Be your own man, not some chemically altered monster.

I guess you don't drink coffee? How many people use caffeine to chemically alter their state? How about using alcohol to ease social interaction anxiety? Nicotine is another very popular tool for altering one's state.

We are all essentially bags of chemicals. If someone hacks their diet to optimize nutritional chemical input, are they a chemically altered monster? Where's the line?

Even playing sports together, sharing in a rush of dopamine to bond, could be considered here.

Re: I Only Work Remotely

#33

Post by k__ »

bitwize wrote: post #18

Don't you just love it when someone with zero direct reports thinks he can tell managers how to manage? It's a job , it's not a fucking Montessori school, or a correspondence course. If you don't want your employability to dry up once rockstar ninjas become commonplace enough that the demand bubble for them pops, you will cultivate the essential skills of showing up when and where your employer demands and otherwise…

> tell managers how to manage

The truth today is sadly, that there are not much managers left who are really able to "manage".

If your "style" of management needs constant synchronous contact to the people you manage, you aren't a manager but a glorified courier.

Re: I Only Work Remotely

#34

Post by mileycyrusXOXO »

battlebot wrote: post #29
kdelano wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my part, after taking THC(tincture) I "get creative" on architecture solutions, new feature ideation, and things like that. I generally keep any code I write during this time in a separate branch to code review while sober before merging in - it's the ideas that are most important, not the actual code.

Maybe try not using drugs as a crutch? It reminds me of a perverse version of what athletes use steroids for. Be your own man, not some chemically altered monster.

Does Adderall count as a 'crutch' or make someone a chemically altered monster?

Re: I Only Work Remotely

#35

Post by delish »

battlebot wrote: post #29
kdelano wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my part, after taking THC(tincture) I "get creative" on architecture solutions, new feature ideation, and things like that. I generally keep any code I write during this time in a separate branch to code review while sober before merging in - it's the ideas that are most important, not the actual code.

Maybe try not using drugs as a crutch? It reminds me of a perverse version of what athletes use steroids for. Be your own man, not some chemically altered monster.

>Maybe try not using drugs as a crutch? . . . Be your own man, not some chemically altered monster.

Many forums have a rule: "do not diagnose[0] fellow forum members." You're not directly diagnosing kdelano, but if a malady (crutch-needing) needs a drug (THC), you're implicitly saying kdelano has a malady. It's then too easy to insult the person ("some chemically-altered monster").

[0] medical diagnosis, psychoanalysis, etc.

Re: I Only Work Remotely

#36

Post by billirvine »

As a founder of startups, I take a bit of exception to the tonality.

Yes, lots of inexperienced founders/leaders drink deep of the open office koolaid and do it wrong. But doing it right (allowing flexibility, having private spots, etc.) yields better overall results because people are more creative in groups. The chance serendipity of investigating new ideas with your fellows will always result in a better work product.

Re: I Only Work Remotely

#37

Post by johnward »

gcp wrote: post #19
bshimmin wrote: post #4

I am a night owl. You can tell me I have to have my butt in a chair within your line of sight at 8 or 9am, but that is very wasteful. You are wasting my time and yours. I am not a morning person. I will start being very effective around 11am and I really get going in the afternoon/evening. So, er, everyone else has to be accommodating of this guy's abnormal working hours, because the first two hours of the day that s…

I work for a company with offices in USA, Europe and Taiwan. What's a "normal working hour"?

Normal working hours changes based on the project I'm on. I often work with people in a timezone that is 12 hours off my own. In that case one of us ends up on a 10pm call at some point. I actually prefer 7am-4pm but found that would just lead to 7-7 as "work", more likely useless meetings, usually creeps in later. Now I just start at 9.

Re: I Only Work Remotely

#38

Post by justinlaster »

billirvine wrote: post #36

As a founder of startups, I take a bit of exception to the tonality. Yes, lots of inexperienced founders/leaders drink deep of the open office koolaid and do it wrong. But doing it right (allowing flexibility, having private spots, etc.) yields better overall results because people are more creative in groups. The chance serendipity of investigating new ideas with your fellows will always result in a better work prod…

I strongly disagree. In fact, I'm of the opinion these days that if you can't communicate effectively and proficiently over text, you're in the wrong field; at the very least I'm going to question how much you are "with it."

There is nothing stopping a completely remote company from having "jam" sessions between developers. Is there any solid evidence that working in an office together yields a better work product? We see plenty examples of products that are built by completely remote organizations, and no one has ever pointed to them and gone "man, if only they worked in a face to face situation this would be so much better!"

Re: I Only Work Remotely

#39

Post by vinceguidry »

bitwize wrote: post #18

Don't you just love it when someone with zero direct reports thinks he can tell managers how to manage? It's a job , it's not a fucking Montessori school, or a correspondence course. If you don't want your employability to dry up once rockstar ninjas become commonplace enough that the demand bubble for them pops, you will cultivate the essential skills of showing up when and where your employer demands and otherwise…

> If you don't want your employability to dry up once rockstar ninjas become commonplace enough that the demand bubble for them pops,

This is the crux of your argument, and it's debatable whether this will ever happen. My feeling is that rockstars will always be rare. I don't think this is a function of supply and demand but rather just human nature.

I personally could be a rockstar if I wanted to. I bet a lot of us could. I just don't care to organize my entire life around my work. It's not that I don't know how to do it, there's no magic trick about it, it's not some rarefied thing that only one in a million can figure out.

I just want to focus on other things, not vomit code at feverish pace all day long. I don't think anyone but the most driven among us ever will.

Rockstars are not created by market pressure. Therefore there is no asset bubble for their services waiting to pop. You and I can safely sit here and dream up ways to lift up the entire profession because it won't get stolen out from under us by ninjas.

Re: I Only Work Remotely

#40

Post by lj3 »

gcp wrote: post #25
Jaruzel wrote: post #21

One of the opening lines resonated with me: "...I cannot trust employers to provide me with an adequate work environment." This is becoming more and more the default position, especially in the contract market. A recent contract I had, had quite poor office space - small old desks, old 17" monitors, no personal storage, chairs in poor repair, and a badly working hot-desk system (I have yet to encounter 'working' hot-…

In most engineering offices I've been into being a morning person would mean you have less overlap with everyone else, since coming in late and staying late is the norm. In one company I consulted for, a morning person almost got fired when a regional manager noticed he left 2 hours earlier than everyone else. It was hilarious, in the saddest possible way.

Can confirm; I have been that morning person who left 2 hours before everyone else and, while I didn't get fired, I was punished for it.
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