4 ms·

Or in other words what business problem one is solving 0-1, 1-10 or 10-100. For first two remote is non-starter. Similarly, what career stage one is in? Young

by achow 3y ago

Or in other words what business problem one is solving 0-1, 1-10 or 10-100. For first two remote is non-starter. Similarly, what career stage one is in? Young workers who are in 0-1, and to certain extent 1-10, remote really does not work.

jen20 3y ago
The first part of this is patently untrue. The most successful startup I worked at (defined as having IPO’d, and having their products effectively everywhere) was fully remote. This was very much 0-1, 1-10 type work. The only requirement to ever physically be in a given place was when visiting a customer. The FAANG I work for now similarly has lots of 0-1, 1-10 type work (at least for my team), and a fully remote team. It works fine too. The part about more junior employees is _more_ valid, though we had no problem on boarding juniors in either of those two situations. Ultimately whether remote work is successful depends on whether the people doing the work have sufficient self-discipline to get the job done, and whether the hypothetical office alternative is set up for success. Most offices are not remotely set up for success, but optimize instead for middle management (toxin or cancer? [1]) being able to view their fifedoms. [1]: https://www.talkfrom.com/video?name=leadership-without-management-scaling-organizations-by-scaling-engineers-bryan-cantrill https://www.talkfrom.com/video?name=leadership-without-manag...
danaris 3y ago
My wife worked for several years for a company with only about a half-dozen employees. It was full remote. She left there in 2011, after rising through the ranks to the level of division director. They did almost all their business over email and Skype, because at the time, Skype was still the best voice/video conferencing software available without dedicated hardware. If it was possible then for a small group of non-tech-focused people, it's certainly possible now, over a decade later and with an entire pandemic forcing the rapid improvement of all sorts of remote-work technology. That doesn't mean it's for everyone, but boldly stating that it's a "non-starter" is just unsupportable.

by achow 3y ago

jen20 3y ago

The first part of this is patently untrue. The most successful startup I worked at (defined as having IPO’d, and having their products effectively everywhere) was fully remote. This was very much 0-1, 1-10 type work. The only requirement to ever physically be in a given place was when visiting a customer. The FAANG I work for now similarly has lots of 0-1, 1-10 type work (at least for my team), and a fully remote team. It works fine too. The part about more junior employees is _more_ valid, though we had no problem on boarding juniors in either of those two situations. Ultimately whether remote work is successful depends on whether the people doing the work have sufficient self-discipline to get the job done, and whether the hypothetical office alternative is set up for success. Most offices are not remotely set up for success, but optimize instead for middle management (toxin or cancer? [1]) being able to view their fifedoms. [1]: https://www.talkfrom.com/video?name=leadership-without-management-scaling-organizations-by-scaling-engineers-bryan-cantrill https://www.talkfrom.com/video?name=leadership-without-manag...

danaris 3y ago

My wife worked for several years for a company with only about a half-dozen employees. It was full remote. She left there in 2011, after rising through the ranks to the level of division director. They did almost all their business over email and Skype, because at the time, Skype was still the best voice/video conferencing software available without dedicated hardware. If it was possible then for a small group of non-tech-focused people, it's certainly possible now, over a decade later and with an entire pandemic forcing the rapid improvement of all sorts of remote-work technology. That doesn't mean it's for everyone, but boldly stating that it's a "non-starter" is just unsupportable.