Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Remote Only

remoteonly.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 374 posts

Re: Remote Only

#211

Post by [deleted] »

AstralStorm wrote: post #197
jasonkester wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's how markets work. Markets work by paying for value created. I’ve tested extensively, and found that I’m equally capable of writing code on a beach in Thailand as in a felt cube in California. I’ll grant that there is a Cost of Living difference between those places, but I would prefer that difference to be captured by me rather than somebody else’s company. It’s me doing the work and creating the value, so that…

Unfortunately, you will get outpriced by people doing "the same" work for less. Since you cannot know the global prices, you cannot even meet them, much less compete. Lowest bidder often wins.

[deleted]

Re: Remote Only

#212

Post by amorphous »

minipci1321 wrote: post #209
nvarsj wrote: post #207

My somewhat reductive conclusion about remote work is that it boils down to the ability to be an effective writer. If you're not good at written communication, or you work with people who are not good at it, remote work will be miserable. People who are not highly fluent in the company's written language or those with some level of dyslexia will struggle. Also some people get frustrated with the more analytic approac…

> it boils down to the ability to be an effective writer. effective reader too. One should be able to quickly make sense out of several hunbdreds of email messages, otherwise it will end up in "synchronous mode" -- dozen of messaging windows opened at every moment.

so true.

I have a business partner that I can talk to very effective in person. I had to relocate, and now we have to deal mostly via email. I have been working remotely for ten years now and saw no problem with the change. But it has become disastrous. I figured out that he is just not an "email type". Only picking up the phone works with him, but this does not fit into my workflow. I'm undoing our business partnership currently.

Re: Remote Only

#213

Post by skohan »

zerostar07 wrote: post #200

The usual skepticism from HN comes up whenever telecommuting is brought up. However, it was tech's promise. I think people should be asking how to fix its problems rather than nagging that it "doesn't work for me". But maybe i'm biased as an indie dev.

What do you work on as an indie dev?

Re: Remote Only

#214

Post by [deleted] »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #106
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.

Salary should be scaled in part by cost of living, otherwise it's unfair to people in high COL countries. Gitlab does this when calculating salary [1] for their employees. It seems only fair to me. [1] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/global-c...

[deleted]

Re: Remote Only

#215

Post by williamdclt »

jv22222 wrote: post #134
hartator wrote: post #6

> Disadvantages > Scares investors - Scares some partners - Scares some customers - Scares some potential employees, mostly senior non-technical hires - Onboarding is harder, first month feels lonely We do a full remote policy at SerpApi.com, however I found this disadvantages list a bit dishonest, they are more way numerous and important, the most obvious are missing real human contacts (and it doesn't get easier wi…

> missing real human contacts For me, personally, working from home has amplified the good parts of working with people and human contact and removed the bad parts. When we do meet in person (4-5 times a year) we have a blast. When we communicate via video the communication is a lot of fun and very purposeful at the same time. Sometimes it feels like I speak to remote co-workers by video more than family and people i…

My need for human contact is not only verbal communication: it's cleaning the coffee machine, taking a walk, playing around, throwing a duck, being randomly head-butted by a scrum master, going for an afterwork beer... Lot of interaction with people

Re: Remote Only

#216

Post by SigmundA »

Doesn't seem to be much discussion about the environmental impact of remote work.

Lately I have been feeling how ridiculous it is for me to drive everyday to a office and sit at a computer then drive home. So inefficient from an energy usage perspective.

I see so many jobs that could easily be remote if people could deal with the issues outlined here.

Imagine the difference in traffic and office space if every job that could be remote was. I would think the environmental impact would be huge.

In a utopian view I could see us returning to small villages as there is no need to move to the city. You could live in smaller communities wherever you like with others you get along with in person.

High speed internet has made this possible, but it seem like we have just scratched the surface of how it could change society and the planet.

Re: Remote Only

#217

Post by huskyr »

jimejim wrote: post #123

I've worked mostly remote for over 20 years, both as an engineer and a business owner. I wouldn't give it up for the world. However, simple fact: not all people are cut out for it. Some perfectly fine engineers are better in an office environment with other people. Sometimes an office environment is LESS distracting for those people, not more. It also depends on where they are in life: A person with toddlers is going…

+1. I'm the exact opposite. I've been offered remote jobs a couple of times, but there's just something about going to an office, talking with people in real life, even getting interrupted during work is something i tend to like. Working from home, or even from a co-working space doesn't make me happy.

A lot of the things mentioned in this manifesto are perfectly valid for non-remote work as well. Making sure knowledge is written down, shorter and fewer meetings, 'results of work over the hours put in' seem useful in any work setting.

Re: Remote Only

#218

Post by dbingham »

nemothekid wrote: post #38
existencebox wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't share your pessimism about the list of downsides, and am honestly surprised, as while normally I chuckle at the "HN is always negative" sentiment, this post being the top reply is a real head scratcher, as someone who is both 1. on a >75% remote team, and 2. who has been advocating/watching HN advocate for remote for quite some time. I'd say "missing real human contacts" is summarized well under a combination…

> I don't mean to be dismissive, but "that seems like a personal problem." This is incredibly dismissive. Almost all the "advantages for employees" are personal. How is "No commuting time or stress" not a personal benefit? The advantages for remote work are almost entirely being sold that they are better for people . If someone has a personal problem with an aspect of it, then it should be taken seriously. Imagine if…

The advantages are not all personal. The environmental benefits that come from reduced travel and reduced need for office space (which sits empty much of the time) is no joke. Neither is the economic / environmental benefit of freeing people up to live anywhere, not just where the corporate offices / factories happen to have located. That means people can go where the housing is available and affordable. We can repopulate areas -- like many midwestern small towns and medium towns -- that have emptied out as jobs have moved away.

These are very significant societal benefits, not personal ones.

That said, remote working isn't going to work for everyone. Extroverts, especially, I think tend to struggle with it a little bit.

Re: Remote Only

#219

Post by zerostar07 »

SigmundA wrote: post #216

Doesn't seem to be much discussion about the environmental impact of remote work. Lately I have been feeling how ridiculous it is for me to drive everyday to a office and sit at a computer then drive home. So inefficient from an energy usage perspective. I see so many jobs that could easily be remote if people could deal with the issues outlined here. Imagine the difference in traffic and office space if every job th…

Co-working spaces could be a big deal if they catch up (i.e. if real estate prices drop enough so they can be affordable to everyone). They would create small "commercial" regions around them with a small scale economy around them, and that could be transformative for neighborhoods.

Re: Remote Only

#220

Post by jpatokal »

AstralStorm wrote: post #191
mfonda wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If your process cannot revert a breaking change with a figurative snap of fingers, the process is broken. It is like driving a car with no brakes. About the only time where I've seen this fail is if it was a publicised feature launch that was way premature.

And when it's the build server itself that's broken? No process can account for every possible edge case, and you need to have flexibility to handle the unexpected.
Post reply on HN