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If you're remote, ramble

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Re: If you're remote, ramble

#331

Post by laweijfmvo »

gwbas1c wrote: post #62
rablackburn wrote: post #8

I did read the post, but allow me to also recommend rambling when you’re remote. As in, take time in your day to wander and roam. (I would go for a ~1hr hike in the mornings as my “commute”) It gives you a sense of distinction from being home or “at work”. The routine cardio, and musings you have while walking make it well worth it.

This is also known as "driving your kids to school." When my schedule allows, I walk my dog with my daughter and pause at her bus stop and meet her friends. Years ago it was a 45 minute walk, round trip, to daycare.

not to be confused with “dropping the kids off at the pool,” right?

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#332

Post by kepano »

Aurornis wrote: post #202
latchkey wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> from a manager’s perspective this format is something we’ve tried to avoid I'd rather avoid the manager's perspective.

The blog post is from a manager’s perspective. It’s a manager explaining what they had their employees do.

FWIW it's not something I asked anyone to do. The practice started organically and continues to exist because everyone created their own channel and kept going with it.

One thing I suggested was that they should be muted by default so that they aren't a distraction and don't set the expectation that they should be read.

I thought it would be interesting to write about because it was an emergent practice that seems to be sticky and useful within our team.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#333

Post by dknecht »

majke wrote: post #132

Let me share a personal story. Back in 2014 when I was working at Cloudflare on DDoS mitigation I collaborated a lot with a collage - James (Jog). I asked him loads of questions, from "how to login to a server", via "what is anycast" to "tell me how you mitigated this one, give me precise instructions you've run". I quickly realised that these conversations had value outside the two of us - pretty much everyone else…

And it still lives on today where we reposted this post!

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#334

Post by onion2k »

oefrha wrote: post #230
serf wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>and they know it's a judgement free zone. that's the thing that's so inorganic about this whole thing : it's not a judgement free zone, it's a zone that tricks people into presuming that. If some underling somewhere says something that exposes their ignorance or naivety to either a policy problem or a technical problem you'd better realize that it's going to trigger a 'review mechanism' somewhere down the road withi…

Yeah, maybe I’m small-minded, but if someone I’m not familiar with, say a new hire asks a question way beneath their presumed experience level I’m absolutely gonna judge, judgement free be damned; and if they’re my report I’m gonna question the hiring (in my mind). There’s no shortage of imposters in the industry, most of them who’re capable of landing jobs above them are probably also smart enough to scoff at pure f…

Having spent a long time in tech and worked with a lot of people I've realised there are two sorts of people who are "imposters". There are those who have BS'd their way up and are in a role where they're out of their depth, and there are those who were lucky to have landed a role that's a bit beyond them (often because they have deep experience elsewhere.)

The first type don't ask questions. They know they're imposters and don't want to be called out.

The second type do ask questions. They also know they're imposters but they're trying to learn so they're not.

Judge people on their actions else you'll only spot the second group, and often with a bit of support those ones can go on to do great things, especially if they're experienced at one thing but they're not learning a new thing. When they get enough knowledge to connect the two things they can be absolutely brilliant.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#335

Post by npteljes »

makeitdouble wrote: post #37

> Each ramblings channel should be named after the team member, and only that person can post top-level messages. Others can reply in threads, but not start new ones. I'm trying hard to understand why it has to be a personal channel. Water coolers aren't personal, that's the whole point. In particular you're still adjusting what you write to be OK for anyone in your team read, so the distinction with the other "casua…

Common channels can also work nice, but sometimes there is a vocal few who absolutely dominates them, and then the other people won't participate at all. The idea in TFA is to everyone have their own channel, where others cannot start a topic, so they don't stifle those who communicate less.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#336

Post by therealdrag0 »

ogou wrote: post #208
mjevans wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a distinction between random (probably not for work, 'water cooler chat') and 'obviously divisive' topics like politics. Particularly in the US, those are the sort of things you avoid.

Those distinctions evaporated in 2020 and never returned.

Huh? Thats just not true. We have channels for gamers, pets, golf, home automation, “lounge”, “memes”, etc. I’ve been at this company 4 years and can only thing if 3 times I’ve seen a dispute, and even that was very civil. It’s really not hard to leave politics at home.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#337

Post by ogou »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #336
ogou wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those distinctions evaporated in 2020 and never returned.

Huh? Thats just not true. We have channels for gamers, pets, golf, home automation, “lounge”, “memes”, etc. I’ve been at this company 4 years and can only thing if 3 times I’ve seen a dispute, and even that was very civil. It’s really not hard to leave politics at home.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27032627

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#338

Post by tnel77 »

laweijfmvo wrote: post #331
gwbas1c wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also known as "driving your kids to school." When my schedule allows, I walk my dog with my daughter and pause at her bus stop and meet her friends. Years ago it was a 45 minute walk, round trip, to daycare.

not to be confused with “dropping the kids off at the pool,” right?

No. That happens once you get to work and you’ve had your first cup of coffee.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#339

Post by cassianoleal »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #214
kmarc wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To defend @bagacrap, they said they tend to be a bit suspicious. And I am, too, when I hear this weekly from the same person (and when I ask back next day, if she recovered, she asks me "from what"?) I'm all in for more times off for parents, more PTOs, sabbaticala, etc. But come on, having "a cold" twice a month... IT IS suspicious.

Do they perform adequately at their job in general? If so, who cares?

And if not, that's a much better thing to focus on vs whether they took a few days off for whatever reason.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#340

Post by xg15 »

Aurornis wrote: post #158
majke wrote: post #132

Let me share a personal story. Back in 2014 when I was working at Cloudflare on DDoS mitigation I collaborated a lot with a collage - James (Jog). I asked him loads of questions, from "how to login to a server", via "what is anycast" to "tell me how you mitigated this one, give me precise instructions you've run". I quickly realised that these conversations had value outside the two of us - pretty much everyone else…

I understand the point you were making, but from a manager’s perspective this format is something we’ve tried to avoid. Having a place to have people ask questions is great and encouraged, but doing anything that starts gravitating the knowledge toward a person instead of a topic creates problems for discoverability, searchability, and risks creating the impression (for new employees) that certain specific people are…

> I do the same thing when someone starts asking specific technical questions in #random or #general: Redirect to the project specific channel.

What if it is a specific technical question but does not clearly belong to a specific project?

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