Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did

m.signalvnoise.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 192 posts

Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did

#141

Post by pc86 »

659087 wrote: post #102
pc86 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People with money have nice things. I don't think anybody is surprised by this. DHH is also someone that people want to follow, whether for Rails, or business, or whatever. It's not necessarily bragging. I don't know much of anything about DHH's personality, so maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But come on, the dude is loaded. Is he supposed to move his desk to the other side of the room so that people don't carp on him f…

I wasn't talking about the desk picture.

Fair enough, that was the only one I looked at

Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did

#142

Post by draw_down »

Edd314159 wrote: post #106

Every time I see a post from the Basecamp guys and how well they treat their team, it's more depressing than uplifting - just because I know I'll never be good enough to work there, and that they're so unique that no other employer will ever do the same.

I'm sure they're good but a lot of that is branding. Trust me, when you get on the inside of such "elite" places, they're not as different from your average workplace as you might think.

Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did

#143

Post by akulbe »

matchagaucho wrote: post #62
jasonkester wrote: post #2

Well done. Personally, as a remote developer, I always make a point of billing at my "Bay Area Rate", even though I've never lived there. There was a point, early in my guy-on-the-beach-with-a-laptop era where I would cut my bill rate in half while working from the beach with a laptop. Clients were happy about that, and it more than paid for beers and thatch huts. Then one time I tried not cutting my bill rate in hal…

I live in the SF Bay. My "onsite" day rate is much higher than my "remote" rate. All of my local clients accept a compromise; meet in-person once per sprint (every 2-4 weeks). Otherwise all work is done remotely. My remote employees and contractors are not required to commute or work onsite, therefore the remote rate applies. Kudos to Basecamp for committing to standard salary levels, but I believe geographic cost-of…

What kind of dev work are you doing? (if you don't mind my asking)

How many employees/subs do you have?

Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did

#144

Post by Bartweiss »

tinbad wrote: post #127
conanbatt wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea to match salary to cost of living is economically ridiculous, but I want to share a couple of personal experiences and ideas. > As the article so nicely points put, the work you're doing is exactly the same regardless of where you do it from. Charge accordingly. First of all, a remote employee is not worth the same as one in the office. For 2 engineers of the same capacity, any employer or coworker would rat…

I don't agree with your premise of "remote workers being worth less (even if slightly) because there's less efficient collaboration". The last part is only true because most of today's organizations and processes are organized this way. Objectively, there's very little (outside of the individuals ability/willingness to work) that can't be optimized for remote work using modern technology. I've been working remote for…

Until the open plan office fad finally dies, I suspect some developers are more efficient working remotely.

Collaboration is great, but it's better as a purposeful thing spaced between uninterrupted work. As two-minute interruptions several times an hour, it's a serious impediment to focused work.

For me at least, my experience working remotely was that I was less integrated into the team, and struggled to contribute and keep up when planning involved ad hoc discussions. But I got more done per hour, and the conversations I did have with teammates were more structured and productive than they tend to be in person. We also had a better knowledge base and lower bus factor, because information was passed in text more than by word of mouth.

Under ideal circumstances with experienced teams, in-person work probably has an edge. After all, you can interact like it's remote work in any case where that's a better system. But in the real world, I suspect remote work has clear advantages for some tasks.

Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did

#145

Post by pc86 »

shadowtree wrote: post #99
Androider wrote: post #64

DHH has the coolest desk and home office I've ever seen: https://www.instagram.com/p/BcnPtAwlAKe/?hl=en&taken-by=dhh7... Check out the rest of the house too, amazing. I think some people have this image that Basecamp and DHH is some scrappy bootstrapper fighting the establishment. But really he is living the life that even most successful "exited" venture fueled founders wouldn't be able to attain, and he's just sayi…

He used to promote himself like this: https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-day-i-became-a-millionaire-55... But then he counted his money again, bought a house in the hills of Malibu, a couple of mad cars (family car is a Rolls-Royce Phantom), starting being a race car driver (Le Mans),... Never believe ANYONE who says money isn't the a key to happiness. Not the sole reason, but just take a look at his Insta again. Kudos.

Money isn't the key to happiness, however it lets you get rid of a lot of the bullshit of life. And that bullshit of life is what's making the majority of unhappy people unhappy.

Yeah if you hate your spouse, don't have friends, don't have hobbies, etc, adding a few zeros to your bank account won't change that. But there are plenty of people who are unhappy largely because of the stress around the financial side of their lives.

Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did

#146

Post by 659087 »

pc86 wrote: post #145
shadowtree wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He used to promote himself like this: https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-day-i-became-a-millionaire-55... But then he counted his money again, bought a house in the hills of Malibu, a couple of mad cars (family car is a Rolls-Royce Phantom), starting being a race car driver (Le Mans),... Never believe ANYONE who says money isn't the a key to happiness. Not the sole reason, but just take a look at his Insta again. Kudos.

Money isn't the key to happiness, however it lets you get rid of a lot of the bullshit of life. And that bullshit of life is what's making the majority of unhappy people unhappy. Yeah if you hate your spouse, don't have friends, don't have hobbies, etc, adding a few zeros to your bank account won't change that. But there are plenty of people who are unhappy largely because of the stress around the financial side of t…

> Money isn't the key to happiness, however it lets you get rid of a lot of the bullshit of life.

Wealth brings with it plenty of other bullshit to make up for the bullshit you lost when you first obtained it, though.

Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did

#147

Post by simonsarris »

Androider wrote: post #64

DHH has the coolest desk and home office I've ever seen: https://www.instagram.com/p/BcnPtAwlAKe/?hl=en&taken-by=dhh7... Check out the rest of the house too, amazing. I think some people have this image that Basecamp and DHH is some scrappy bootstrapper fighting the establishment. But really he is living the life that even most successful "exited" venture fueled founders wouldn't be able to attain, and he's just sayi…

Does anyone know what keyboard that is?

Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did

#148

Post by cityhall »

pjc50 wrote: post #23
rplnt wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the work you're doing is exactly the same regardless of where you do it from But the "bay pay" isn't for your work. It's so you can work - i.e. cover your expenses associated with working at that particular place.

No, it's a market-clearing rate like everything else. It is for the work and only for the work. Otherwise you get the bad old days where unmarried employees were paid less than married ones, and so on.

They still are when you factor in benefits. Family health insurance costs more than single.

Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did

#149

Post by cityhall »

This is a trend I can get behind, recruiting by advertising that you pay well instead of telling people they should get a sense of pride and accomplishment by working on hard problems after surviving your interview process. Unfortunately I didn't see any numbers in the article.
Post reply on HN