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We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

weworkremotely.com

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Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#151

Post by wrboyce »

kirillzubovsky wrote: post #113
httpteapot wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried plateforms like oDesk?

If he is serious about actually working and making a living, oDesk is not the right place to work. I wrote about it a few days ago - https://medium.com/startup-shenanigans/66896bbf21da - cheap labor and sup-par clients, yeah, oDesk is definitely not the place.

It is probably worth noting that this guy is probably somewhat biased due to being the founder of (as far as I can tell) a similar hire-people-from-me-I'm-not-quite-a-recruitment-agent type website.

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#152

Post by lignuist »

enjo wrote: post #134
agentultra wrote: post #30

It'd be nice if remote working opportunities didn't come with national borders. The border-less nature of the Internet and knowledge-based work doesn't seem to require geographic location and yet due to complex logistical restrictions most of these job postings are US-only. Kind of a weird place to be. I wonder if there's some kind of hack that could allow small companies and startups to get around the policy issues…

Remote doesn't generally mean completely de-coupled. For us it's more of a timezone issue than anything else. It's still very handy to have people who can meet and collaborate at least for a decent chunk of the day. Which means for a company in the United States getting farther away than western Europe is a real challenge.

I am currently working in a team with people from three continent. It works if people are willing to adapt.

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#153

Post by byoung2 »

pmjordan wrote: post #99
byoung2 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I can tell, the IRS (US tax collecting agency) requires a tax withholding on anything a US company pays an employee/contractor abroad That can't be true for contractors, or sites like Elance and oDesk would not be able to operate as easily as they do. A contractor is responsible for paying his own taxes, whether that is to the IRS in the US, or the tax authority in his own country.

You'd think so. Read up on W-8BEN if you don't believe me. I've been on the receiving end of this for doing a tech review of a book for a major US tech publisher. The amount of paperwork required on my end to satisfy the IRS meant I just gave up and effectively told the publisher to keep the money. (I did it for fun/experience anyway - tech reviewing books isn't a way to make a living.)

You'd think so. Read up on W-8BEN if you don't believe me

You proved my point:

Foreign persons are subject to U.S. income includes: tax at a 30% rate on income they receive from U.S.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8ben.pdf

The burden is on the foreign person, not the US company. The US company can pay you as a contractor and not withhold any tax (just as they could with a US citizen 1099 contractor). The foreign contractor would have to file the W-8BEN (or not, since the US likely can't prosecute offenders in their home country).

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#155

Post by rodolphoarruda »

alpeb wrote: post #120
rodolphoarruda wrote: post #44

Not for those old dogs called project managers... like me.

Not surprisingly since they kinda pooh-pooh on managers in the book: "We believe that these staples of work life - meetings and managers - are actually the greatest causes of work not getting done at the office". More context will tell where they're coming from, but they don't acknowledge the importance that great managers acting as leaders have in a project. I still haven't finished the book though.

Yes, and I remember when I was reading their other title: "Getting Real", and they make a point about being the "anti-MS Project" company. It's like educating people about your convictions by not telling who you are, but who you aren't. Looking at the quote you pulled in, it's clear they are holding the "anti-manager" flag now.

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#156

Post by lazerwalker »

davidw wrote: post #127
lazerwalker wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tone of the job posting might be laughable, but those aren't in opposition to each other unless you're demanding Stallman levels of fanaticism.

It hardly requires 'Stallman levels of fanaticism' to prefer an OS that you can explore and tinker with, if you're someone who likes to know - or maybe even tweak - how things work under the hood. A "hacker", in other words.

I tinker and play with Linux all the time, on servers and VMs. Saying that "you don't love open source enough to use an open source OS" implies to me that OSS is intrinsically better and preferable to non-OSS, even if a closed-source alternative would be better for your personal needs. That strikes me as fairly dogmatic (although it's very possible I misread the original intent).

I personally use OS X as my desktop OS because it suits my needs, despite contributing regularly to open source. I agree completely that there are many non-'fanatical' reasons to prefer Linux as a desktop OS.

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#157

Post by kirillzubovsky »

wrboyce wrote: post #151
kirillzubovsky wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he is serious about actually working and making a living, oDesk is not the right place to work. I wrote about it a few days ago - https://medium.com/startup-shenanigans/66896bbf21da - cheap labor and sup-par clients, yeah, oDesk is definitely not the place.

It is probably worth noting that this guy is probably somewhat biased due to being the founder of (as far as I can tell) a similar hire-people-from-me-I'm-not-quite-a-recruitment-agent type website.

Good point! I gotta admit, I am totally biased :)

However, I'd like to point out that we are not at all a recruitment agency, but rather a community of awesome freelancers. We do curate the talent to make sure you only get the best, but we are certainly not recruiters.

The goal is to allow any great freelancer to setup their own shop online without much upfront work. We support them by building tool that ensure security, timely payment, accurate project management and so forth.

:)

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#158

Post by jebblue »

mgkimsal wrote: post #140
andyroid wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you somehow doubt that to be true, or what is your point?

"better" is always subjective, and it's never even been close to my expectations. I don't think most people who've told me "oh, has gotten a lot better in the last year" even know what the problems are that keep some people away. I think it's largely PR parroting, and a way to seem marginally 'with it' re: linux. "hey yeah, I know ubuntu had some issues in the past, but you should really try it now - it's a lot bette…

Linux desktop, CentOS, SuSE, Fedora, Ubuntu all have worked fine for me the past 15 years. I have fewer problems than when I have to do something on/with Windows. So either all my machines and all my experiences were really lucky or your post is an elegant troll.

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#159

Post by [deleted] »

mgkimsal wrote: post #140
andyroid wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you somehow doubt that to be true, or what is your point?

"better" is always subjective, and it's never even been close to my expectations. I don't think most people who've told me "oh, has gotten a lot better in the last year" even know what the problems are that keep some people away. I think it's largely PR parroting, and a way to seem marginally 'with it' re: linux. "hey yeah, I know ubuntu had some issues in the past, but you should really try it now - it's a lot bette…

[deleted]

Re: We Work Remotely – New Job Board from 37 Signals

#160

Post by brdrak »

mgkimsal wrote: post #140
andyroid wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you somehow doubt that to be true, or what is your point?

"better" is always subjective, and it's never even been close to my expectations. I don't think most people who've told me "oh, has gotten a lot better in the last year" even know what the problems are that keep some people away. I think it's largely PR parroting, and a way to seem marginally 'with it' re: linux. "hey yeah, I know ubuntu had some issues in the past, but you should really try it now - it's a lot bette…

Linux user for 15 years, Debian/Ubuntu exclusively for the past 7 or so. IMO, it's without question that the Desktop experience is better every year, now to a point where it just works 99.9% of the time (in my experience, anyway). Haven't had a any problems with sound or multiple monitors in a while (using both Nvidia and ATI video cards).

Of course people will and should use whatever they want. I have to touch Windows and Macs regularly as well and they're not without problems. Each will have its pros/cons like anything else.

Sounds like you're annoyed with people asking you why you use OSX. I've asked that question myself in the past. I assume people make informed choices, so I'm always curious about the reasons. Personally, I don't mind people asking me why I use Linux.

I will say that the Desktop experience still is the weak point compared with how solid everything else is. Xorg is a pain, but I haven't had to touch it in a few years (defaults have been working fine for me), so that's been fine.

The reason I keep using Linux is not because it's perfect, but because the breadth of amazing and ridiculously easily accessible free software available for the Debian ecosystem is unparalleled (in my experience, anyway).

I can run the same software on servers, desktops, laptops, in the cloud, on crappy old hardware in a way not possible with Windows or Mac. I don't have to ask for permission or deal with licensing issues. I can focus on GSD* instead.

* getting shit done -- see other thread :-)

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