101–110 of 114 posts
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Amen, brother. Heck, I use a wireless headset so that even when I'm in a hangout I can walk around, go outside, etc. Don't ask me to think about something and then sit still while doing so; you'll get whatever lazy answer I can come up with quickest - or no answer at all.
Recommendations for a good wireless headset that has decent range?
I wish I knew how to get hired remotely. I'm an experienced programmer, but I happen to also be a security paranoid, so not only I have not bothered building an online persona, I have also removed every trace of myself on the internet. I can prove my experience, but not to an HR guy. I also think I have good written English, and yet I haven't even had a response to any emails I've sent for remote work in other countr…
I love working remotely. My current arrangement has a gotomeeting standup every day, jira for tickets, hipchat for persistent chat (I had to recommend persistent chat to them but now they love it), and frequent code pairing through screen sharing. They all go home at five so I can stop then, too. I wonder sometimes if there are other similar arrangements out there - java, spring, etc - but it seems like a pretty high…
What do you use for screen sharing? Most of the products I have utilized feel laggy..
In general I agree that remote working has lot of advantages. Especially if you are a programmer you get the peace and quietness you need to get into the flow, no discussion here. I wrote my best code when I was alone with me and my music. But things are different if you want to build the next big thing with cofounders and there I experienced three big disadvantages: 1. All big (and finally successful) ideas and vent…
To what extent do you think this is the case?
I currently work at home 3-4 days a week with the others being in the office, usually for meetings and collaborating on things. The office is an open floor plan with very poor noise reduction. When not in meetings in that environment, it is hard to get work done even with headphones. Visual and audio distractions persist. That said, there are times where getting together is helpful. When contacted by companies, I ask…
Time spent in the car/traffic is life lost, something you will never get back again. A 1 hour commute one-way is about 20 hours a week. That's a part-time job for some people. Commuting is simply not that interesting of an activity.
Thanks to StackOverflow I'm relatively reputed(?) in one teeny niche of the programming world. This leads to a few recruiter emails per week, and almost all of them I reply to with a cheeky way of saying that I'm not going to move[1]. One company to date has said that not-relocating my entire life is OK with them. The rest can be summed up with the reply that ended an email exchange with an SV angel: > sorry to hear…
This morning, I turned left out of the driveway on my bike to head to work -- the same driveway that I've lived on since 1989. It's "early spring" already in Silicon Valley, and the distinct smell of the brisk, moist air and the sight of the fresh, yellow-green-Crayola-colored grass that has sprouted up all over the hills following the winter rains made me think, "ah, it's this time of year again." I couldn't help bu…
It also just happens to have the absolute best weather and scenery.
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I'm not sure "unlimited" vacation time is empowering. It makes who goes on vacation more or less than whoever else something that may be silently judged. Bob went abroad for five weeks- is that excessive? Bob has no way of knowing what others will think, and may not go abroad at all to avoid the potential fallout. This judgment is also very difficult to uncover- if one person discourages his team from taking vacation…
> In actual practice, "unlimited vacation" seems to be a nice term for the company to minimize potential severance pay, bookkeeping, and potentially create a work environment that silently discourages taking vacation time while publicizing the opposite. I too have been bitten by this - hearing "there is no vacation time limit", and then seeing your paycheck shrink and being told "You took too much vacation"... That's…
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Time spent in the car/traffic is life lost, something you will never get back again. A 1 hour commute one-way is about 20 hours a week. That's a part-time job for some people. Commuting is simply not that interesting of an activity.
I have a daily commute time of 1h each direction but I travel by train. I've been doing this for 2 years now and intent to keep it this way because I find it a lot easier to focus on reading than when I am at home. When I don't feel like reading I listen to podcasts or reflect my work.
I wish I knew how to get hired remotely. I'm an experienced programmer, but I happen to also be a security paranoid, so not only I have not bothered building an online persona, I have also removed every trace of myself on the internet. I can prove my experience, but not to an HR guy. I also think I have good written English, and yet I haven't even had a response to any emails I've sent for remote work in other countr…
Are cost of living adjustments made to the compensation packages for remote workers, or does a developer in rural Iowa get the same six figure salary that seems like nothing in Silicon Valley?
Remote workers tend to be freelancers/self-employed. There may be no compensation package at all ;-)
I understand that if you're freelancing things are very different.