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The hardest part of development, and any human endeavor, is typically communication. Working in an isolated environment can be extremely productive for some pe

The hardest part of development, and any human endeavor, is typically communication. Working in an isolated environment can be extremely productive for some people some of the time (e.g. A dev knows exactly what to do and needs to just crank) but even that is oversold: having someone to bounce ideas off and to talk us off the ledge can prevent a lot of malinvestment in code. Email, text chat, even video chat just ain't the same as having a guy next to you that you can interrupt at a whim to discuss things with. In particular the ability to recognize that someone gets what you are saying is severely hampered with remote technologies, making technical communication much less efficient. Then you have the informal and overheard communication that takes place in a (sanely laid out) office. Then you have lunches. It all just piles up. I work remotely and I hate the inefficiencies it introduces.

BrandonM 15y ago
> Email, text chat, even video chat just ain't the same as having a guy next to you that you can interrupt at a whim to discuss things with. I suspect that the guy who is being interrupted "at a whim" would prefer to be working at home.
- Goronmon 15y ago
  Then I guess that guy shouldn't be working a job that requires him to interact with other members of a team.
  - gaius 15y ago
    If you are any sort of serious coder then you recognize that being interrupted has a cost that is much greater than the time of the other task, and unless the site is down, you just IM, even if he's sitting nearby, because then he can answer in a few minutes when he's finished whatever tricky thing he was doing.
    - carsongross 15y ago
      Well, I'm not a very serious coder: I just work on a crappy programming language. I'll take the interruptions and discussions involved in a highly social work environment that keeps me from writing code that is not necessary over a silent monastery that lets me build gleaming cubes of intellectual perfection that no one needs or that have been already built. (Caveat: with idiot coworkers, none of this applies.) Sure, flow is important at times. It's also addictive. Programmers are introverts, undervalue communication and overestimate their understanding of, well, everything. Know thyself.
      - gaius 15y ago
        But I dip in and out of the flow. If I see an IM window blinking, I can ease myself out, get the code to the point at which I can re-enter smoothly, it only takes a minute or two usually. Whereas even "are you busy?", most annoying question ever, is enough to jolt me out.
  - BrandonM 15y ago
    As gaius said, it's not about being unwilling to interact as a member of the team. It's about respecting people's "flow" and recognizing the cost of interruptions. If I'm in the middle of something tricky, it's most efficient if it has my full attention. Once I get everything into an acceptable state, I'll typically check my IMs and emails to answer any questions that people might have for me. For a couple people working this way, the workflow upon running up against a problem might be: 1. Send IM or email to a team member who almost certainly has the answer. 2. Wait a half minute or so for a reply. 3. (Optional) Seek the answer yourself for a few minutes. 4. If the problem is urgent, make a phone call to the team member. 5. Otherwise, work on something else until you get the reply.
marknutter 15y ago
In my experience, email, text chat, and video chat/screen sharing is pretty much the same as having the guy next to me.
- carsongross 15y ago
  Nah, there is all sorts of informal feedback that you get from actually being local: cross talk, voice tone, facial expressions, half-sketched white boards. It's just a different thing, at least for me.
- AndrewDucker 15y ago
  I can pick up a piece of paper, scribble on it, ask if people prefer X or Y, draw on a whiteboard, wave my hands descriptively, and generally get much better communication with people who are right in front of me.

BrandonM 15y ago

> Email, text chat, even video chat just ain't the same as having a guy next to you that you can interrupt at a whim to discuss things with. I suspect that the guy who is being interrupted "at a whim" would prefer to be working at home.

Goronmon 15y ago
Then I guess that guy shouldn't be working a job that requires him to interact with other members of a team.
- gaius 15y ago
  If you are any sort of serious coder then you recognize that being interrupted has a cost that is much greater than the time of the other task, and unless the site is down, you just IM, even if he's sitting nearby, because then he can answer in a few minutes when he's finished whatever tricky thing he was doing.
  - carsongross 15y ago
    Well, I'm not a very serious coder: I just work on a crappy programming language. I'll take the interruptions and discussions involved in a highly social work environment that keeps me from writing code that is not necessary over a silent monastery that lets me build gleaming cubes of intellectual perfection that no one needs or that have been already built. (Caveat: with idiot coworkers, none of this applies.) Sure, flow is important at times. It's also addictive. Programmers are introverts, undervalue communication and overestimate their understanding of, well, everything. Know thyself.
    - gaius 15y ago
      But I dip in and out of the flow. If I see an IM window blinking, I can ease myself out, get the code to the point at which I can re-enter smoothly, it only takes a minute or two usually. Whereas even "are you busy?", most annoying question ever, is enough to jolt me out.
- BrandonM 15y ago
  As gaius said, it's not about being unwilling to interact as a member of the team. It's about respecting people's "flow" and recognizing the cost of interruptions. If I'm in the middle of something tricky, it's most efficient if it has my full attention. Once I get everything into an acceptable state, I'll typically check my IMs and emails to answer any questions that people might have for me. For a couple people working this way, the workflow upon running up against a problem might be: 1. Send IM or email to a team member who almost certainly has the answer. 2. Wait a half minute or so for a reply. 3. (Optional) Seek the answer yourself for a few minutes. 4. If the problem is urgent, make a phone call to the team member. 5. Otherwise, work on something else until you get the reply.

marknutter 15y ago

In my experience, email, text chat, and video chat/screen sharing is pretty much the same as having the guy next to me.

carsongross 15y ago
Nah, there is all sorts of informal feedback that you get from actually being local: cross talk, voice tone, facial expressions, half-sketched white boards. It's just a different thing, at least for me.
AndrewDucker 15y ago
I can pick up a piece of paper, scribble on it, ask if people prefer X or Y, draw on a whiteboard, wave my hands descriptively, and generally get much better communication with people who are right in front of me.