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Working alone sucks

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Re: Working alone sucks

#41

Post by return0 »

labaraka wrote: post #10
marknutter wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for co-working. I occasionally work from a co-location workspace or a coffeeshop with local friends and hackers and it satisfies my need for human interaction without being too distracting.

There is a difference between general human interaction and specifically having a peer working with with you on a common goal.

It's definitely nice being able to work with intelligent people to solve a problem, you learn a lot (and sometimes you feel like others are learning, which is rewarding in itself). Working with uninspiring people can be pretty distracting and counterproductive. I was fortunate to co-work with a few people having similar goals and work attitudes in the past; in short people i could become friends with. Does this happen in generic co-working spaces?

Re: Working alone sucks

#42

Post by paulsutter »

This is a pretty clear take on the cofounder debate. Key quote:

"I don’t have a CFO, COO or other peers with the same overall picture of the company and incentive structure that I have"

In the early days of Quantcast, Konrad (the other cofounder) and I wondered why the employees didn't generally have the same sense of urgency that we did. My friend Bryan asked "so, what do you do when you read an article about a competitive threat?" and we both answered "we share it with each other". "and not the employees?", and we looked at each other and said "we don't want to be discouraging". Bryan said "no wonder they don't feel urgency".

And that's at the core of having a cofounder. Or more importantly, perhaps that's one of the real reasons you want the initial team of a company to all be cofounders (YC style). You want everyone in the same boat, with a big bet on the line, sharing information openly.

I'd love to hear any other thoughts about the real underlying reasons that the success rates are higher with companies that have cofounders. Most of the discussion on HN is about the observation, and examples either way. But I'd love to hear insight into the reasons.

Re: Working alone sucks

#43

Post by thirtysixred »

lsdafjklsd wrote: post #34

I have never had a real life developer friend or someone to talk to. I got my BFA in illustration in 2010 and decided to get back into web development (I got an associates in digital media 3 years prior and was into web development in high school). So the landscape of development had changed a ton, I stumbled on to middleman and SASS.. so I was getting acquainted with modern tools and techniques. Then I was lucky eno…

If you're close to the Portsmouth area check out: http://alphaloft.com. They have regular talks and meet ups.

You could always head over to Boston there's a ton of web development stuff happening there and regular meet ups.

Re: Working alone sucks

#44

Post by Timothee »

marknutter wrote: post #3

Title should be "Working alone sucks for some people ". I've been working from home for years and love it, for instance.

Sure, but all blog posts titles should have "…for some people" then. And all opinions should be concluded by "it depends".

Re: Working alone sucks

#45

Post by fmavituna »

Interesting. My experience is almost the opposite of this. CEO of a small distributed team with 10 people, I spend half of my day on Skype talking with the team.

I actually socialize more than my previous office job (penetration testing) in an office with 20~ people.

Best part of it when I want to be alone to focus on something all it takes is setting my status to DND which you can't effectively do in many offices.

Re: Working alone sucks

#46

Post by labaraka »

paulsutter wrote: post #42

This is a pretty clear take on the cofounder debate. Key quote: "I don’t have a CFO, COO or other peers with the same overall picture of the company and incentive structure that I have" In the early days of Quantcast, Konrad (the other cofounder) and I wondered why the employees didn't generally have the same sense of urgency that we did. My friend Bryan asked "so, what do you do when you read an article about a comp…

You've nailed it!

I should have been clearer in my post and maybe titled the post "Not having co-founders sucks".

Re: Working alone sucks

#47

Post by rickmode »

marknutter wrote: post #3

Title should be "Working alone sucks for some people ". I've been working from home for years and love it, for instance.

This fits with a life lesson I've been internalizing for the last couple years:

For many problems there are many right answers.

More specifically for opinion/work situation articles like this, the argument applies to a particular personality type and/or particular personal situation.

If you're extroverted, then working alone may leave you bored and unfulfilled.

If you in the middle between introverted and extroverted, working alone may work if other parts of your life have personal interaction.

If you are introverted, working alone may be the best possible situation.

I find working from home works well for me, though at times I feel disconnected, out of the loop, and generally not charged up. But most of the time I find it ideal. I'm middle of the road on the introvert/extrovert scale, am easily distractible when bored (ADHD), and get a charge from working with people - but only when I have part of the day to unwind alone.

I also know working entirely alone on a solo project get me nowhere.

But most of this is about my personality, not about software development, working in a large company, or founding a startup.

There are many right answers. My right answer and yours may be the same if we are similar and in the same situation. Otherwise, my advice probably won't help you - and visa versa.

Re: Working alone sucks

#48

Post by jcoby »

marknutter wrote: post #3

Title should be "Working alone sucks for some people ". I've been working from home for years and love it, for instance.

I've been working from home for five years now. It has its perks but I do miss some things about working in an office.

Mainly the clear demarcation between "work" and "home." Working from home I just make myself some coffee, walk upstairs, and I'm working. Or not, I may go down and work on my car or clean the kitchen. Working from an office I had the drive to clear my head and go into work mode. And then the drive home to get back into "home" mode. I couldn't let "home" bleed into "work" and vice-versa.

I also miss being able to go knock on someone's door and bounce an idea off of them. Now I have to type it out or fire up a skype session to discuss things. Typing in the chat room isn't easy and nuance is lost. And the effort of bringing up a skype session and the human niceties that tend to go with it (the "hey how are you?") and technical problems ("you need to upgrade!", "internet is slow!") make it hard and I tend to just not do it.

That said, working from home on my own projects is nice and I don't know if I could ever work in an office for someone else ever again.

Re: Working alone sucks

#49

Post by jasonkester »

I met a girl at a party once, and she said something really interesting when I mentioned that I wrote software for a living.

"I could never do that", she said. "I could never sit alone all day, staring at a computer and never getting the chance to talk to anybody. It'd be my worst nightmare."

I hadn't ever thought about it like that. Naturally, as a developer, I think I have the greatest job there is. Where else could you get somebody to pay you like fourteen times the median family income to hang out anywhere in the world you please and solve interesting puzzles all day?

But not everybody is wired the same. Lots of people (most people???) get their energy from face to face human interaction.

Poor fools, eh?

Re: Working alone sucks

#50

Post by wallflower »

If you work at home alone and you need human interaction, get a dog. It will force you to get outside and interact with humans.

I met a young person once who was successful (multi-millionaire) and had sold several companies. In the post-sell lull, he said that until he got a dog - he didn't have a daily routine - since he didn't have to really work. Showering is a habit that quickly can fall by the wayside if you work from home alone too much.

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