4 ms·

Perhaps the moral of that cartoon should be "why Entrepreneurs should reconsider having partners and children that can't tell the difference between play and wo

Perhaps the moral of that cartoon should be "why Entrepreneurs should reconsider having partners and children that can't tell the difference between play and work" My 4 year old daughter woke me up the other day saying "Wake up you've got to work. That's what grown ups do".

michael_dorfman 16y ago
I've got 4 children, and while they can tell the difference between play and work, it still confuses them when I am around and visible, but not available to help, or talk, or whatever. Having an office outside the house is well worth the expense; it makes it the distinction between "work" and "home" very clear to everybody, and when I am in either place, I am able to give my full attention to the task at hand, be it work or family. By the way: you might want to ask your 4-year-old for some details concerning what she thinks "work" is all about. When asked what job she wants to have when she grows up, mine says "Tinkerbell."
- davidw 16y ago
  I work at home and it's not ideal. I think the ideal thing would actually be to have something that's very close, but physically a separate building. Part of the problem is that, if you're anything like me, computer time isn't all work time. Sometimes for instance, my 2 year old and I look at videos of animals on youtube or talk to grandma and grandpa on skype, and at 2, she's just beginning to acquire words like 'work', let alone fully understand the implications.
  - krschultz 16y ago
    I've always thought about the idea of turning a barn style building into an office. The biggest issue for working from home is meetings. You can't have people into your "office" and be taken seriously, and there are just some things you can't do at Starbucks.
nkassis 16y ago
Actually, that's a terrible criterion for choosing a partner in my view.
- yummyfajitas 16y ago
  I think it's a reasonable criterion. A person who can't understand the concept of "physically present but working and unavailable" is likely a person who is stuck in their own head and can't appreciate that you have your own life. That can be a real problem. At least, that's my experience. YMMV.
  - davidw 16y ago
    > A person who can't understand the concept of "physically present but working and unavailable" is likely a person who is stuck in their own head and can't appreciate that you have your own life. That can be a real problem. That, or they're a perfectly normal young child. And it works both ways: when you hid your kid crying (which you'll hear even with the door closed), it overrides pretty much everything else in your head.
edanm 16y ago
I'm a case of a still-living-at-parent's-house entrepreneur. I do this to keep down on expenses, which is the reason I can work for so long on my stuff without worrying about financing. But it is hard. It's impossible to explain to your parents that it's not ok to ask you to "just drive your brother somewhere, it will only take 10 minutes". From their point of view, it's entirely reasonable. From your point of view, it's a waste of maybe an hour, considering switching costs and everything else.

michael_dorfman 16y ago

I've got 4 children, and while they can tell the difference between play and work, it still confuses them when I am around and visible, but not available to help, or talk, or whatever. Having an office outside the house is well worth the expense; it makes it the distinction between "work" and "home" very clear to everybody, and when I am in either place, I am able to give my full attention to the task at hand, be it work or family. By the way: you might want to ask your 4-year-old for some details concerning what she thinks "work" is all about. When asked what job she wants to have when she grows up, mine says "Tinkerbell."

davidw 16y ago
I work at home and it's not ideal. I think the ideal thing would actually be to have something that's very close, but physically a separate building. Part of the problem is that, if you're anything like me, computer time isn't all work time. Sometimes for instance, my 2 year old and I look at videos of animals on youtube or talk to grandma and grandpa on skype, and at 2, she's just beginning to acquire words like 'work', let alone fully understand the implications.
- krschultz 16y ago
  I've always thought about the idea of turning a barn style building into an office. The biggest issue for working from home is meetings. You can't have people into your "office" and be taken seriously, and there are just some things you can't do at Starbucks.

nkassis 16y ago

Actually, that's a terrible criterion for choosing a partner in my view.

yummyfajitas 16y ago
I think it's a reasonable criterion. A person who can't understand the concept of "physically present but working and unavailable" is likely a person who is stuck in their own head and can't appreciate that you have your own life. That can be a real problem. At least, that's my experience. YMMV.
- davidw 16y ago
  > A person who can't understand the concept of "physically present but working and unavailable" is likely a person who is stuck in their own head and can't appreciate that you have your own life. That can be a real problem. That, or they're a perfectly normal young child. And it works both ways: when you hid your kid crying (which you'll hear even with the door closed), it overrides pretty much everything else in your head.

edanm 16y ago

I'm a case of a still-living-at-parent's-house entrepreneur. I do this to keep down on expenses, which is the reason I can work for so long on my stuff without worrying about financing. But it is hard. It's impossible to explain to your parents that it's not ok to ask you to "just drive your brother somewhere, it will only take 10 minutes". From their point of view, it's entirely reasonable. From your point of view, it's a waste of maybe an hour, considering switching costs and everything else.