This is my inspiration to create https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job/
How Paul Graham Is Wrong
201–206 of 206 posts
Re: How Paul Graham Is Wrong
#202>Use WordPress and P2, use Slack, use G+ Hangouts, use Skype, use any of the amazing technology that allows us to collaborate as effectively online as previous generations of company did offline. I've been a 100% remote worker for 5+ years but I think we have to be honest here. All those teleconferencing/videoconferencing/virtualwhiteboards/etc are not as effective as everyone sharing the same physical workspace. Yes…
Mullenweg is in kind of a unique situation with WordPress/Automattic - they have regular staff meetings all over the world, under the monicker "WordCamp". Sure they don't have all the staff at any of them (except SF, presumably), but a lot of the people working for the company attend various ones regularly, so they can get together in-person for periodic meetings, while at the same time keeping people in touch with what their users are doing.
Re: How Paul Graham Is Wrong
#203Muhannad0147@hotmail.com
Re: How Paul Graham Is Wrong
#204Muhannad0147@hotmail.com
Re: How Paul Graham Is Wrong
#205>Use WordPress and P2, use Slack, use G+ Hangouts, use Skype, use any of the amazing technology that allows us to collaborate as effectively online as previous generations of company did offline. I've been a 100% remote worker for 5+ years but I think we have to be honest here. All those teleconferencing/videoconferencing/virtualwhiteboards/etc are not as effective as everyone sharing the same physical workspace. Yes…
As another veteran of working remotely, I disagree. Conscious use of collaboration tools offsets not being in the same office together nicely. Real time communication via Hangouts or Skype are at a level where you can hold a good conversation without having to be in the same physical location. Also, most offices (and businesses) are not really built to support proper collaboration and working conditions. As an exampl…
> Conscious use of collaboration tools
The key word being "conscious." Finding good developers is hard, and finding good ones that communicate well remotely is even harder.
Shameless self-promotion: we (nearly 100% remote) explain some of soft skills we look for in an engineer here: http://www.staunchrobots.com/blog/staunch/
There's probably a training business opportunity in this sector.
Re: How Paul Graham Is Wrong
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
> sometimes the most productive thing you can do is stop a programmer from writing code. I have little to dispute about this statement, but I disagree that being colocated has any effect on this (unless stopping them 4-5 times a day will truly make the team more productive; at which point a manager needs to step in and fire that person ASAP). > The value of colocated employees is being able to really quickly recogniz…
From personal experience, the most common way this comes up is that you have a casual hallway conversation with a colleague, they ask "So what are you working on these days?", you tell them, and they respond with "You should talk to so-and-so, he worked on that a year ago and may have some insights" or "Have you heard about technology Foo that's designed just for that problem?" And then you follow up on that lead and…
it's very easy to make sure that it doesn't happen - for example in Scrum there is a term called "morning meetings", where team is talking about what they are planning to do, what they did previously, and talks about some issues if there are any.
I've seen many examples that exactly the same problem as you've written happens even in co-located team, so it's a problem of lack of communication, not of being co-located (or not).