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Remote Only

remoteonly.org

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Re: Remote Only

#151

Post by megaman22 »

mfonda wrote: post #148
bmelton wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Kevin broke the site, it's a process problem. Kevin didn't break the site, he introduced code that might have broken the site, and the lack of tests to have detected the it broke the site. Jane then peer reviewed the code that might have broken the site and approved it. Bob then failed to notice that the site was broken during QA. The QA environment was apparently configured differently enough by Taylor that the s…

As true as this is, unexpected problems happen. Kevin may be the only one that can fix it, or at least be able to fix it a lot more effectively than others. The issue might not be Kevin's fault (i.e it's really a process problem), but being able to talk to him immediately (or at least know his schedule) will go a long ways in getting the issue resolved in an acceptable time frame. Nothing against remote work, but kno…

Kevin's available hours should be common knowledge, or easily findable in a system of some sort, ranging from text file to excel sheet to Exchange to massively overpriced time-tracking software.

Re: Remote Only

#153

Post by a13n »

hellofunk wrote: post #152

> Fast internet everywhere - 100Mb/s+ cable Now that made me laugh out loud. This author must live in a nice bubble to think that.

I was in Seoul last week. I had 400Mb/s on my phone... It's devastating how far behind some first-world countries are in data infrastructure.

Re: Remote Only

#154

Post by jasonkester »

jnmandal wrote: post #112
rwbcxrz wrote: post #66

> Fast internet everywhere - 100Mb/s+ cable, 5GHz Wifi, 4G cellular I used to say that. Now I live in a rural area, and the fastest speed that's even available is 5Mbps (and the uptime isn't great). My house also has zero cell service from any provider. It's also a bit presumptive that everyone can afford a 100Mbps connection. The last place I lived, it was like $120/month for 100Mbps. Not everybody can afford that.…

1. A lot of places that are remote will cover or subsidize internet costs for employees 2. I think the the poor access to Internet in rural areas is more of a US thing. In LDCs we have often wider availability for low cost 4g and/or more equal distribution of telecom infrastructure in general.

You have misunderstood. The grandparent is not saying that fast internet is expensive. He’s saying that there is simply no way of attaining it at his house for any price.

That describes a lot of places in the developed world. My little farming town in rural France, as well as the medium sized City in England where I lived previously.

Re: Remote Only

#155

Post by hellofunk »

a13n wrote: post #153
hellofunk wrote: post #152

> Fast internet everywhere - 100Mb/s+ cable Now that made me laugh out loud. This author must live in a nice bubble to think that.

I was in Seoul last week. I had 400Mb/s on my phone... It's devastating how far behind some first-world countries are in data infrastructure.

Seoul is not everywhere. South Korea is quite technologically advanced.

Try doing more traveling in SE Asia, you’ll see how bad it can be.

Re: Remote Only

#156

Post by mmt »

BallinBige wrote: post #79
subway wrote: post #2

For the love of all that is sane, please top trying to push nonstop video calls onto remote employees. Embrace asynchronous communication.

pair programming is more effective IN PERSON

I don't think I've ever seen any objective evidence on this one way or the other.. have you?

Re: Remote Only

#157

Post by mjrbrennan »

hellofunk wrote: post #152

> Fast internet everywhere - 100Mb/s+ cable Now that made me laugh out loud. This author must live in a nice bubble to think that.

I was thinking the same thing, he must not live in Australia where the government has absolutely shattered most people's chances of getting 100MB/s+ cable in the next 10-20 years.

Re: Remote Only

#158

Post by jasonkester »

Selects for self starting people

The article has the arrow causality backwards on this one, and it describes the biggest pitfall with remote work: you absolutely need to seek out and only hire people who will find things to do and work around problems on their own, rather than waiting for instruction from above.

That describes a surprisingly small subset of employees. School trains you for the age of four to take instructions from the person in charge, act, then wait for more instructions. You can make it all the way to retirement on many career tracks without ever deviating from that pattern.

It does not work at all in a remote organisation.

Re: Remote Only

#159

Post by tom_mellior »

jameslk wrote: post #102
allday wrote: post #18

> Save on compensation due to hiring in lower cost regions Pay people what they're worth regardless of where they live. If you have a developer in Nigeria or Ukraine or Vietnam that is as equally capable as a developer in the Bay Area, they should be paid the same. Doing otherwise, at best, perpetuates Western hegemony, and at worst is simply racism.

I guess we'll have to throw purchasing power out the window to discuss this one. So pay the developer $20k per year or pay them $100k? If the former, I guess those US developers are just screwed and will probably make more money flipping burgers. If the latter, or anywhere between, then we'll just see developers move to the cheapest, lowest tax countries to arbitrage the artificial market inefficiency. Or are you sug…

> So pay the developer $20k per year or pay them $100k?

If they bring you $20k worth of value, pay them $20k. If they bring you $100k worth of value, pay them $100k.

Would it suck to be a developer in San Francisco on the same salary as your colleague in India? Sure, but nobody forces you to live in San Francisco.

> If the latter, or anywhere between, then we'll just see developers move to the cheapest, lowest tax countries to arbitrage the artificial market inefficiency.

So? What does that have to do with your company? Does it have a moral obligation to contribute to global inequality?

Wouldn't it be better for the world if good hard money for taxes and locally sourced goods and services were flowing into less developed countries?

Re: Remote Only

#160

Post by namibj »

solarkraft wrote: post #40
namibj wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out German software-related companies. Small ones are usually flexible to be persuaded to hire you, if you can get through to them, that is. A good application should work, and as usual, don't give up too soon. They don't even know they can handle it. Maybe do some research as to how they'd have to do payroll, to reduce the scariness of someone overseas.

Where can I specifically find German tech companies?

Look at the HRB and GnR "Type of Register" on the advanced search of [0], and add keywords such as "IT", "net", "net" and similar. I'm not that well-versed in these matters, so while I think there is some source you could find a list of these names and just run a regex on, I don't know where to get that list. Also consider mining the CN fields of server certificates on German IP ranges/all IPv4 addresses (it's just 2^32), and check their Impressum. There you can look for a string ending in " GmbH" and " AG" in a footer, to get the company name to use your regex on. The benefit there is that it should yield all companies that have a German website with HTTPS, and I'd take a lack of HTTPS for the company website or a website not reachable via a second level domain under the .de TLD as a red flag. Assume to require a small German introduction telling the recipient to forward the English part to an English speaking colleague, preferably in the IT department, because the risk of hitting someone who can't understand your English application is quite large.

[0]: https://www.handelsregister.de/

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