4 ms·

Show HN: Remote Work Encyclopedia – a tactical guide to working from anywhere

63 points by philip1209 7y ago

philip1209 7y ago
When Emma and I started Moonlight two years ago, remote work was still a new concept. We figured it out the hard way while freelancing and traveling. Since then, we've seen remote become more mainstream and successful. But questions still remain - what makes a company remote? How do you get a remote job? How do you manage a remote team? To answer these questions and more, we wrote the Remote Work Encyclopedia! Our goal is to help more companies take advantage of the new, global development market, and to educate knowledge workers on how to ditch the office for a more flexible career. We started the book - but open-sourced it so that everybody can contribute [1]. Take a look, and let me know how we can improve it! [1] https://github.com/moonlightwork/remote-work-encyclopedia https://github.com/moonlightwork/remote-work-encyclopedia
- Gys 7y ago
  > two years ago, remote work was still a new concept. You should have added ' to us'
  - philip1209 7y ago
    Maybe we should be more specific about tech startups there. In 2017, it was a liability to be a remote company. In 2019, it's become an asset.
    - driverdan 7y ago
      While remote work has become more common not much has changed since 2017. I've been working remote off and on since 2011 as have many of my friends.
    - mikekchar 7y ago
      I think a lot of it is your perspective. To many people a remote company is still an insane idea. To other people a remote company is just common sense if you have business that can make it work (the company I work for even has home workers in their call centre. It's amazing!) Where you are on that spectrum depends a lot on your experiences. Like others, if you saw the shift happening from 2017 to 2019, then you were experiencing things very differently than me. I don't think that's unexpected though. If you speak in a way that assumes your reader has the same experiences as you, you will create some dissonance and I think that's the feedback you are getting now. You can choose to write in a way that shows your personal perspective, or you can back off a bit to be more inclusive of people with other perspectives. Either way will work, I think.
    - auspex 7y ago
      Disagree. Lots of remote work has been available in the last 20 years . You just needed the right skill set... as the parent said "new to you"
    - kburman 7y ago
      Any data point to prove this.
Jem_Kazama 7y ago
I love it. Thank you for all the hard work!
ekianjo 7y ago
I stopped reading at the part where all they recommend to use is Apple hardware.
- philip1209 7y ago
  We try to keep this guide as tactical as possible, which means we talk about what we know. Administering different operating systems remotely is hard. If a computer gets lost or broken, Apple is the easiest to quickly replace. I'm speaking from experience - I had my laptop stolen from my Airbnb while in Barcelona, and I could buy a new laptop the next day to get back online. The guide is open-source - we'd appreciate contributions to add more resources and perspectives!
  - ekianjo 7y ago
    How is Apple is the easiest to quickly replace anywhere? There are remote places far from large cities where Apple has no shops and no businesses, and all you can actually get your hands on is a PC. not everyone lives in Silicon Valley or in a large metropolis especially when they work remote.
    - philip1209 7y ago
      The majority of the world lives in cities now, and many cities have Apple stores. But, you're welcome to expand the encyclopedia by opening a pull request.
    - kitotik 7y ago
      Apple has on multiple occasions shipped me replacement hardware next-day Air. This service definitely does not require proximity to a brick and mortar Apple store.
leshokunin 7y ago
Really wish there were some numbers! Did you find any data about how many remote workers there are in the US and worldwide?
marcoseliziario 7y ago
As a remote worker, I fear the hype. I am glad that remote work is becoming more and more acceptable and normal, but I think that we run the risk of it becoming a new fad, start being adopted in a rush, in a cargo cult fashion, and that the inevitable failures would lead to a backlash against it. I would hate to see remote work become another agile.
gonber 7y ago
Unfortunately remote working is not yet universally accepted even when (1) you're not a fan of cities and (2) only go through the commute to do your job at your desk while communicating with everyone around you on Slack. When a recruiter or company reaches out I always ask if they have any remote position to fill. Even when I'm not interested at all. If everyone did that they might start thinking more seriously about it.

63 points by philip1209 7y ago

When Emma and I started Moonlight two years ago, remote work was still a new concept. We figured it out the hard way while freelancing and traveling. Since then, we've seen remote become more mainstream and successful. But questions still remain - what makes a company remote? How do you get a remote job? How do you manage a remote team? To answer these questions and more, we wrote the Remote Work Encyclopedia! Our goal is to help more companies take advantage of the new, global development market, and to educate knowledge workers on how to ditch the office for a more flexible career. We started the book - but open-sourced it so that everybody can contribute [1]. Take a look, and let me know how we can improve it! [1] https://github.com/moonlightwork/remote-work-encyclopedia https://github.com/moonlightwork/remote-work-encyclopedia

Gys 7y ago
> two years ago, remote work was still a new concept. You should have added ' to us'
- philip1209 7y ago
  Maybe we should be more specific about tech startups there. In 2017, it was a liability to be a remote company. In 2019, it's become an asset.
  - driverdan 7y ago
    While remote work has become more common not much has changed since 2017. I've been working remote off and on since 2011 as have many of my friends.
  - mikekchar 7y ago
    I think a lot of it is your perspective. To many people a remote company is still an insane idea. To other people a remote company is just common sense if you have business that can make it work (the company I work for even has home workers in their call centre. It's amazing!) Where you are on that spectrum depends a lot on your experiences. Like others, if you saw the shift happening from 2017 to 2019, then you were experiencing things very differently than me. I don't think that's unexpected though. If you speak in a way that assumes your reader has the same experiences as you, you will create some dissonance and I think that's the feedback you are getting now. You can choose to write in a way that shows your personal perspective, or you can back off a bit to be more inclusive of people with other perspectives. Either way will work, I think.
  - auspex 7y ago
    Disagree. Lots of remote work has been available in the last 20 years . You just needed the right skill set... as the parent said "new to you"
  - kburman 7y ago
    Any data point to prove this.

Jem_Kazama 7y ago

I love it. Thank you for all the hard work!

ekianjo 7y ago

I stopped reading at the part where all they recommend to use is Apple hardware.

philip1209 7y ago
We try to keep this guide as tactical as possible, which means we talk about what we know. Administering different operating systems remotely is hard. If a computer gets lost or broken, Apple is the easiest to quickly replace. I'm speaking from experience - I had my laptop stolen from my Airbnb while in Barcelona, and I could buy a new laptop the next day to get back online. The guide is open-source - we'd appreciate contributions to add more resources and perspectives!
- ekianjo 7y ago
  How is Apple is the easiest to quickly replace anywhere? There are remote places far from large cities where Apple has no shops and no businesses, and all you can actually get your hands on is a PC. not everyone lives in Silicon Valley or in a large metropolis especially when they work remote.
  - philip1209 7y ago
    The majority of the world lives in cities now, and many cities have Apple stores. But, you're welcome to expand the encyclopedia by opening a pull request.
  - kitotik 7y ago
    Apple has on multiple occasions shipped me replacement hardware next-day Air. This service definitely does not require proximity to a brick and mortar Apple store.

leshokunin 7y ago

Really wish there were some numbers! Did you find any data about how many remote workers there are in the US and worldwide?

marcoseliziario 7y ago

As a remote worker, I fear the hype. I am glad that remote work is becoming more and more acceptable and normal, but I think that we run the risk of it becoming a new fad, start being adopted in a rush, in a cargo cult fashion, and that the inevitable failures would lead to a backlash against it. I would hate to see remote work become another agile.

gonber 7y ago

Unfortunately remote working is not yet universally accepted even when (1) you're not a fan of cities and (2) only go through the commute to do your job at your desk while communicating with everyone around you on Slack. When a recruiter or company reaches out I always ask if they have any remote position to fill. Even when I'm not interested at all. If everyone did that they might start thinking more seriously about it.