3 ms·

I think he overvalues temporary documentation. There is a difference between writing extremely detailed notes on something because you know you won't be availab

I think he overvalues temporary documentation. There is a difference between writing extremely detailed notes on something because you know you won't be available for 12 hours rather than documenting a summary and asking questions if needed. The former is only a shortcoming of working remotely. You end up writing a tremendous amount of documentation that is really ephemeral, just to allow people to work in that manner. There is no substitute for face time, and video conference doesn't do that. The only companies I've seen be successful at this are extremely small, and the employees they do have are highly independent.

sverhagen 8y ago
"Big" is a subjective measure, so I don't know if you think 450 is big; it is in my world. This 450 staff company GitLab, that this person is leaving, is well-known for being successful at being 100% remote. Maybe they're an outlier (probably they are), maybe they're the one proving you wrong. Maybe your experience is with "remote-friendly" companies, versus GitLab being a 100% remote company. Purportedly, they don't have any number of people that are commonly colocated.
- shaklee3 8y ago
  I suppose they might be the one to prove me wrong. But I think the larger they get, the more they'll hit the problems big companies face, and it's compounded by being remote. Good for them for making it this far, and from what I've read their product is great.
chrismorgan 8y ago
> You end up writing a tremendous amount of documentation that is really ephemeral Yet I find that writing more about what I’m doing (most commonly in the form of extensive code comments and verbose commit messages, but also in other forms) helps me produce better work. Time and time again I explain in writing how something is or why it’s done the way it is, and realise in the process substantial ways in which it might be improved; or how it’s actually completely broken for an important case that I hadn’t considered; or any number of other reasons why further work is desirable.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
> There is a difference between writing extremely detailed notes on something because you know you won't be available for 12 hours rather than documenting a summary and asking questions if needed. The former is only a shortcoming of working remotely. I don't see it that way. It may seem like this today, or tomorrow, but half a year from now you'll be thankful for any piece of documentation (!= Slack messages) that you can get when revisiting old tasks and trying to piece out reasons for them.
- shaklee3 8y ago
  I've been in the industry for close to 15 years writing software now. The documentation is almost always out of date. You end up looking at the code to get the real story, and the documentation just gives you a rough outline of what it's supposed to do. but I was mostly speaking about additional day today documentation that needs to be written to keep remote workers up-to-speed rather than a 2-minute hallway conversation.

sverhagen 8y ago

"Big" is a subjective measure, so I don't know if you think 450 is big; it is in my world. This 450 staff company GitLab, that this person is leaving, is well-known for being successful at being 100% remote. Maybe they're an outlier (probably they are), maybe they're the one proving you wrong. Maybe your experience is with "remote-friendly" companies, versus GitLab being a 100% remote company. Purportedly, they don't have any number of people that are commonly colocated.

shaklee3 8y ago
I suppose they might be the one to prove me wrong. But I think the larger they get, the more they'll hit the problems big companies face, and it's compounded by being remote. Good for them for making it this far, and from what I've read their product is great.

chrismorgan 8y ago

> You end up writing a tremendous amount of documentation that is really ephemeral Yet I find that writing more about what I’m doing (most commonly in the form of extensive code comments and verbose commit messages, but also in other forms) helps me produce better work. Time and time again I explain in writing how something is or why it’s done the way it is, and realise in the process substantial ways in which it might be improved; or how it’s actually completely broken for an important case that I hadn’t considered; or any number of other reasons why further work is desirable.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

> There is a difference between writing extremely detailed notes on something because you know you won't be available for 12 hours rather than documenting a summary and asking questions if needed. The former is only a shortcoming of working remotely. I don't see it that way. It may seem like this today, or tomorrow, but half a year from now you'll be thankful for any piece of documentation (!= Slack messages) that you can get when revisiting old tasks and trying to piece out reasons for them.

shaklee3 8y ago
I've been in the industry for close to 15 years writing software now. The documentation is almost always out of date. You end up looking at the code to get the real story, and the documentation just gives you a rough outline of what it's supposed to do. but I was mostly speaking about additional day today documentation that needs to be written to keep remote workers up-to-speed rather than a 2-minute hallway conversation.