7 ms·

Fulfilling the promise of an officeless world

52 points by Wump 14y ago

nilkn 14y ago
I love coding and engineering, but I do sometimes regret going into software development instead of, say, medicine or dentistry. And it's not about the money per se--it's about the location. One of my friends growing up is about to start his medical residency and I occasionally think about how a doctor will be able to work really anywhere in the country and be guaranteed a very comfortable six figure salary (at the minimum). If I want a similar salary, however, I feel constrained to go to a few of the tech hubs--Silicon Valley, NYC--where I will be faced with extraordinary cost-of-living expenses. I think back to my dentist growing up who had a little private practice in my home town. He surely made what a Google engineer makes, at the minimum, but he lived in a town where $500k gets you a literal mansion and $1m homes don't even exist. Certainly this is a first world problem in its purest form. But remote development to me represents one way for software developers to realize the dream of high-paying jobs anywhere, even in a rural town in Missouri.
- recursive 14y ago
  I don't know about six figure, but you can live comfortably nearly anywhere in the country.
- skyraider 14y ago
  I wonder if any research has been done on what the effect on median income would be of distributing jobs that don't require physical presence away from boom towns. Intuitively, it feels like boom towns are price-inflated, and that letting less crammed parts of the USA (for example) get some of the economic activity would be a win for both the long-term residents of the boom towns (NYC, Silicon Valley would become less expensive) and the other areas (there would be more economic activity).
- enraged_camel 14y ago
  I occasionally think about how a doctor will be able to work really anywhere in the country and be guaranteed a very comfortable six figure salary (at the minimum) I would contest the "very comfortable" part. For one thing, the training and education a doctor has to go through is an order of magnitude more intense - and it is expensive as hell[1]. For another, after med school doctors continue to work like crazy. My parents, who are in their late 50s and early 60s, still work 12 hours a day on a regular basis, and have to consume entire journals/periodicals and travel for international conferences just to stay on top of new things. Among the hundred or more doctors I personally know of among my family's circle of friends and acquaintences, only one or two live "comfortably," by working a few days a week and making a ton of money. But that's because they: a) have hyper-specialized so that they are one of the few experts in their sub-field b) live in a geographic area where they can charge a ton for their services Compared to this, a software engineer making a low six figure salary lives a very comfortable life. AND software is much less location-dependent, since you can work remotely (unlike doctors). [1]A software engineer goes to college for four years and then gets a job as a programmer. In stark contrast, a doctor though has to do four years of undergrad, four years of med school after that, and then three to seven years of residency. If they want to become highly specialized? Two to three years of fellowship after residency.
  - nilkn 14y ago
    If your parents are doctors, I will gladly admit you probably know more about this than I do. So it would be silly for me to try to contest everything you wrote. However, I do have a few points: > it is expensive as hell It is incredibly expensive, but there are a few points to make here: * $150-200k are the minimum salaries for doctors in many areas. Certain specialists can make $300-450k anywhere in the country. I'm sure a select few make far more even than that, but then again a select few software developers are billionaires, so perhaps we'd best steer the discussion away from the best of the best here, otherwise it just gets silly. * There are army scholarships which eliminate the debt entirely. The catch is you have to work as an army doctor for several years after residency, and the pay there is less than civilian doctors make (although still a lot, even in cheap areas). * Let's say a medical student goes into $300k of debt (which is an overestimate for most cases). The difference in cost between a nice house in San Francisco and a nice house in a small town is far more than $300k. So in a long run, the doctor who chooses to work in a small town can still come out on top--and with a greater salary as well once the debt is paid off. > My parents, who are in their late 50s and early 60s, still work 12 hours a day on a regular basis, and have to consume entire journals/periodicals and travel for international conferences just to stay on top of new things. It would seem to me that this is not much different from many lesser paying jobs in the software industry, even (in fact, especially) in hot spots like Silicon Valley. > software is much less location-dependent, since you can work remotely That is the hope, anyway.
    - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
      You can make good money as a developer anywhere in the U.S. What you'll run into outside of the tech hubs is that it's much harder to find interesting work, but it does exist. There are a lot of professions that pay much better than writing software, that is clear, despite our massive egos we must admit that (unless you work for one of the few tech companies that can pay exorbitantly, but usually then you are sacrificing the rest of your life). If you want to make $300k+ your best bet is to be a really good salesperson. It probably has the best ratio of low education costs / high potential salary.
      - 14y ago
- benjaminwootton 14y ago
  This effect has become really pronounced here in the UK. If I could secure even 50% of my London rates > 1hr outside of London I would be laughing in terms of quality of life. Alas, since the financial crisis, prospects seem to be better in London and worse outside than they ever were.
  - Nursie 14y ago
    I seem to be doing OK on the south coast as a contract C and C++ programmer. I could probably get 50% more in London (not 100%, not easily), but then I don't have to put up with the crowds, the grime and terrible smells or all the miserable faces on the tube, and I'll be buying a detached house with a garden soon... Much better, IMHO.
- tadfisher 14y ago
  There is a middle ground, and that is embodied by the cities of Portland and Austin. Cost of living is ridiculously cheap compared to the tech hubs, there is a burgeoning startup culture, and the salary that lets you afford a 500 sqft apartment within public transport range of the office in SF/NYC gets you a house and a yard within biking distance. There is also the strategy of saving your SF/NYC salary while living in comparative squalor, then retiring early in a cheap place that you love. I picked the first option, as I value roots, family, and home life more than a glitzy software career. You couldn't pay me enough to move.
  - nilkn 14y ago
    I live in Houston and my first year compensation out of college was about $83k. That was really good considering that my peers who stayed in Houston got around $60k it seems. Anyway, even I could not afford to get a house with a yard in the city center ("within biking distance"). At least, not any sort of decent home that one would want to live in. A nice 1br apartment in the city center (nice = safe, clean, updated appliances, washer/dryer in the unit, etc.) is also going to cost $1k/month minimum--anything less and you'll be giving up safety, comfort, or proximity. Of course, that's a far cry from SV, but it's still far from ridiculously cheap as well. As for a house out in a suburb? Absolutely. Minus the downpayment, I could have afforded a decent one right out of college. But those houses come with a minimum of a 30 minute commute, one way, by car. I was always under the impression that Houston was actually cheaper than Austin, but perhaps I'm wrong.
    - derefr 14y ago
      > But those houses come with a minimum of a 30 minute commute, one way, by car. Remember, we're in the middle of a discussion about telecommuting. If you don't actually "commute", it's not that bad. :)
- joonix 14y ago
  New doctors actually have a hard time getting jobs in major markets (big cities) because they are saturated. The only place they have mobility is rural underserved areas. In fact, I would argue that reality is the opposite: doctors and dentists are often envious of people like software engineers who can get jobs in almost any big city in the world where they have the legal right to work. Of course, if small towns are your thing, medicine would be better.
- malandrew 14y ago
  A doctor or dentist can't just move without taking a hit to their salary until they re-establish themselves and their practice in a new market. When you move as a doctor or dentist you are essentially leaving all your current customers behind and starting again from scratch.
- Spooky23 14y ago
  I don't think that true. I know a couple of doctors that work in some city that they consider unworthy, and fly back to NYC for the weekend. I make 6-figures in a small city doing IT. It is absolutely possible. I'm not working for Google, but that isn't something that I lose sleep over.
  - nilkn 14y ago
    > I know a couple of doctors that work in some city that they consider unworthy, and fly back to NYC for the weekend. These sorts of anecdotes don't really mean anything to me. If you don't like small towns to the point that you're going to fly to NYC every weekend, then yes, it would all seem a bit pointless working in one. > I make 6-figures in a small city doing IT. It is absolutely possible. I never said it wasn't possible, but it isn't even remotely normal, unless you have a different idea of small city than I do. Let me give you an example: for a bit my dad did IT for a local school system (elementary + high school) and made a little under $40k. And he wasn't underpaid for that job in the area. The "top" IT guys with bigger clients would pull about $60k, which was considered a very good salary for the area (and indeed it was, when a nice house could be had for not more than double that).
    - Spooky23 13y ago
      I live in a city of 100k people, metro area of 300k. So it's small, but not the wilderness either. End of the day, you need to specialize in an area that valuable to the organizations in the area. You may need to travel. Small-scale IT is become alot more automated and service-based, so jack of all trades roles are really competitive. So you may not be making $150k, but you're also insulated from the boom/bust cycle that permeates places like Silicon Valley, SFO, and to a lesser extent NYC. It all depends on what is important to you...
PixelPusher 14y ago
First, an office less world is a dream right now. If you plan to be hyper-competitive, there's no substitution to 'water-cooler' talk. Technology is nowhere near being able to reproduce that. Second, why would they put the picture of a communist leader who used to shoot defectors and kill artists? Why is he any sort of hero?
- mr337 14y ago
  I couldn't agree more about the pic of Che.
- doorhammer 14y ago
  I don't know that it's a really great idea to throw Che's image into a page related to your product, just because of how polarizing a figure he is, but I'm pretty sure it's only there as a casual reference to "the revolution isn't dead, by any means," and doesn't really have anything to do with glorifying Che or otherwise calling him a "hero." I could think of far more deplorable historical figures someone could stick a picture up of other than Che. While I don't necessarily agree with his ideals, I can respect certain aspects of his persona and drive.
- scarmig 14y ago
  As far as Che goes: At this point, the Che portrait is sort of the reverse story of the swastika. The swastika started out as a symbol of something good and got turned into a symbol of something monstrous; Che started out as something monstrous and got turned into a symbol of something good. That good being, I suppose, a consumerist, photogenic representation of rejecting consumerism.
- RyJones 14y ago
  The Che picture ended any interest I had.
- hcarvalhoalves 14y ago
  > Second, why would they put the picture of a communist leader who used to shoot defectors and kill artists? Why is he any sort of hero? It's a play with the word "revolution".
imissmyjuno 14y ago
UI nag: the fixed header is not functional (how often do people search a blog)?
polemic 14y ago
Beardy: "$8/month billed annually"
lebek 14y ago
As an exchange student that doesn't want to go home for his final year, remote degree would be nice too. Mobile work is a relatively trivial problem compared to a long-distance relationship.
cgh 14y ago
I've been working remotely (1500 km from the office) as a programmer since Sept. 2006. I believe there is huge potential for innovation here and that current collaboration tools are pretty primitive, although I have to say, Webex is a lifesaver. This Screenhero application looks like a great complement. Companies can gain a lot by allowing people to work remotely - they vastly increase the talent pool and they save money by not having to supply office space. But like the article said, there's a cultural issue here. The whole thing reminds me of online dating ten years ago, when the perception was that it's for losers. Now seemingly everyone does it. What's needed is basically validation for this lifestyle. Once that happens, the awesome tools will follow. Screenhero seems like a great first step for sure.
- pm 14y ago
  Have you seen the people are online dating these days? I don't think much has changed.
  - potatolicious 14y ago
    As someone who works in online dating, it has absolutely changed. Online dating is more or less accepted in all major urban centers of the country, in fact becoming a core part of how people date in some (larger) cities like NYC, SF, and DC. The attitudes re: online dating a few years ago vs. now are like night and day.
- Wump 14y ago
  On the topic of online dating :) http://blog.screenhero.com/post/45779204029/share-a-little-love http://blog.screenhero.com/post/45779204029/share-a-little-l...
tadfisher 14y ago
I can't help but think of the environmental repercussions of this, should it come to pass. I can imagine that the cost of heating millions of houses and apartments during the day far exceeds the cost of heating a lesser number of shared office buildings and other collective spaces. An alternative would be if those millions of information workers worked out of coffee shops and the like during the day, but at that point, what is the benefit over working in an office?
- rayiner 14y ago
  Also: people go to work to get away from their houses. This sounds like the pipe dream of some antisocial introverts.
- justinsteele 14y ago
  Why not have communal workspaces in your neighborhood? Have friends over to work at your home, or vice versa? I'm an extrovert working from home, and occasionally struggling with it, but I can see where it would work beautifully.
flyinglizard 14y ago
This is the inevitable future, but something else - and related - I've been thinking about is the rise of the freelance. These two processes go hand in hand on the path to a more efficient yet flexible employment.
- potatolicious 14y ago
  Flexible sure, but not efficient. There's no way freelancing is overall a more efficient allocation of labor than employment. The problem is that in freelance you're getting a bunch of specialized labor to spend a considerable portion of their time performing a non-productive task: i.e., sales. This is suboptimal use of time for the worker, since those hours aren't billable. This is suboptimal use of time for the employer, since evaluating bids and candidates isn't free either. In cases where the employer does not have enough work to justify a full-time hire, this is an acceptable cost of doing business in order for the work to be done. It doesn't scale beyond this group though. Having a bunch of engineers spend a significant portion of their time performing salesmanship rather than engineering is very inefficient, though it may achieve locally optimal results for the individual if you account for flexibility.
aantix 14y ago
Meh, screen sharing is only part of the solution. I want to see who is available, who they've been chatting with, and I want to instantly share screens when I want. The only tool on the market that does this is Sococo; I don't understand why it never gets mentioned in these conversations.. https://www.sococo.com/home#screens-carousel https://www.sococo.com/home#screens-carousel
- reustle 14y ago
  I would never want to work for you.
  - aantix 14y ago
    Why is that?

52 points by Wump 14y ago

nilkn 14y ago

I love coding and engineering, but I do sometimes regret going into software development instead of, say, medicine or dentistry. And it's not about the money per se--it's about the location. One of my friends growing up is about to start his medical residency and I occasionally think about how a doctor will be able to work really anywhere in the country and be guaranteed a very comfortable six figure salary (at the minimum). If I want a similar salary, however, I feel constrained to go to a few of the tech hubs--Silicon Valley, NYC--where I will be faced with extraordinary cost-of-living expenses. I think back to my dentist growing up who had a little private practice in my home town. He surely made what a Google engineer makes, at the minimum, but he lived in a town where $500k gets you a literal mansion and $1m homes don't even exist. Certainly this is a first world problem in its purest form. But remote development to me represents one way for software developers to realize the dream of high-paying jobs anywhere, even in a rural town in Missouri.

recursive 14y ago
I don't know about six figure, but you can live comfortably nearly anywhere in the country.
skyraider 14y ago
I wonder if any research has been done on what the effect on median income would be of distributing jobs that don't require physical presence away from boom towns. Intuitively, it feels like boom towns are price-inflated, and that letting less crammed parts of the USA (for example) get some of the economic activity would be a win for both the long-term residents of the boom towns (NYC, Silicon Valley would become less expensive) and the other areas (there would be more economic activity).
enraged_camel 14y ago
I occasionally think about how a doctor will be able to work really anywhere in the country and be guaranteed a very comfortable six figure salary (at the minimum) I would contest the "very comfortable" part. For one thing, the training and education a doctor has to go through is an order of magnitude more intense - and it is expensive as hell[1]. For another, after med school doctors continue to work like crazy. My parents, who are in their late 50s and early 60s, still work 12 hours a day on a regular basis, and have to consume entire journals/periodicals and travel for international conferences just to stay on top of new things. Among the hundred or more doctors I personally know of among my family's circle of friends and acquaintences, only one or two live "comfortably," by working a few days a week and making a ton of money. But that's because they: a) have hyper-specialized so that they are one of the few experts in their sub-field b) live in a geographic area where they can charge a ton for their services Compared to this, a software engineer making a low six figure salary lives a very comfortable life. AND software is much less location-dependent, since you can work remotely (unlike doctors). [1]A software engineer goes to college for four years and then gets a job as a programmer. In stark contrast, a doctor though has to do four years of undergrad, four years of med school after that, and then three to seven years of residency. If they want to become highly specialized? Two to three years of fellowship after residency.
- nilkn 14y ago
  If your parents are doctors, I will gladly admit you probably know more about this than I do. So it would be silly for me to try to contest everything you wrote. However, I do have a few points: > it is expensive as hell It is incredibly expensive, but there are a few points to make here: * $150-200k are the minimum salaries for doctors in many areas. Certain specialists can make $300-450k anywhere in the country. I'm sure a select few make far more even than that, but then again a select few software developers are billionaires, so perhaps we'd best steer the discussion away from the best of the best here, otherwise it just gets silly. * There are army scholarships which eliminate the debt entirely. The catch is you have to work as an army doctor for several years after residency, and the pay there is less than civilian doctors make (although still a lot, even in cheap areas). * Let's say a medical student goes into $300k of debt (which is an overestimate for most cases). The difference in cost between a nice house in San Francisco and a nice house in a small town is far more than $300k. So in a long run, the doctor who chooses to work in a small town can still come out on top--and with a greater salary as well once the debt is paid off. > My parents, who are in their late 50s and early 60s, still work 12 hours a day on a regular basis, and have to consume entire journals/periodicals and travel for international conferences just to stay on top of new things. It would seem to me that this is not much different from many lesser paying jobs in the software industry, even (in fact, especially) in hot spots like Silicon Valley. > software is much less location-dependent, since you can work remotely That is the hope, anyway.
  - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
    You can make good money as a developer anywhere in the U.S. What you'll run into outside of the tech hubs is that it's much harder to find interesting work, but it does exist. There are a lot of professions that pay much better than writing software, that is clear, despite our massive egos we must admit that (unless you work for one of the few tech companies that can pay exorbitantly, but usually then you are sacrificing the rest of your life). If you want to make $300k+ your best bet is to be a really good salesperson. It probably has the best ratio of low education costs / high potential salary.
    - 14y ago
benjaminwootton 14y ago
This effect has become really pronounced here in the UK. If I could secure even 50% of my London rates > 1hr outside of London I would be laughing in terms of quality of life. Alas, since the financial crisis, prospects seem to be better in London and worse outside than they ever were.
- Nursie 14y ago
  I seem to be doing OK on the south coast as a contract C and C++ programmer. I could probably get 50% more in London (not 100%, not easily), but then I don't have to put up with the crowds, the grime and terrible smells or all the miserable faces on the tube, and I'll be buying a detached house with a garden soon... Much better, IMHO.
tadfisher 14y ago
There is a middle ground, and that is embodied by the cities of Portland and Austin. Cost of living is ridiculously cheap compared to the tech hubs, there is a burgeoning startup culture, and the salary that lets you afford a 500 sqft apartment within public transport range of the office in SF/NYC gets you a house and a yard within biking distance. There is also the strategy of saving your SF/NYC salary while living in comparative squalor, then retiring early in a cheap place that you love. I picked the first option, as I value roots, family, and home life more than a glitzy software career. You couldn't pay me enough to move.
- nilkn 14y ago
  I live in Houston and my first year compensation out of college was about $83k. That was really good considering that my peers who stayed in Houston got around $60k it seems. Anyway, even I could not afford to get a house with a yard in the city center ("within biking distance"). At least, not any sort of decent home that one would want to live in. A nice 1br apartment in the city center (nice = safe, clean, updated appliances, washer/dryer in the unit, etc.) is also going to cost $1k/month minimum--anything less and you'll be giving up safety, comfort, or proximity. Of course, that's a far cry from SV, but it's still far from ridiculously cheap as well. As for a house out in a suburb? Absolutely. Minus the downpayment, I could have afforded a decent one right out of college. But those houses come with a minimum of a 30 minute commute, one way, by car. I was always under the impression that Houston was actually cheaper than Austin, but perhaps I'm wrong.
  - derefr 14y ago
    > But those houses come with a minimum of a 30 minute commute, one way, by car. Remember, we're in the middle of a discussion about telecommuting. If you don't actually "commute", it's not that bad. :)
joonix 14y ago
New doctors actually have a hard time getting jobs in major markets (big cities) because they are saturated. The only place they have mobility is rural underserved areas. In fact, I would argue that reality is the opposite: doctors and dentists are often envious of people like software engineers who can get jobs in almost any big city in the world where they have the legal right to work. Of course, if small towns are your thing, medicine would be better.
malandrew 14y ago
A doctor or dentist can't just move without taking a hit to their salary until they re-establish themselves and their practice in a new market. When you move as a doctor or dentist you are essentially leaving all your current customers behind and starting again from scratch.
Spooky23 14y ago
I don't think that true. I know a couple of doctors that work in some city that they consider unworthy, and fly back to NYC for the weekend. I make 6-figures in a small city doing IT. It is absolutely possible. I'm not working for Google, but that isn't something that I lose sleep over.
- nilkn 14y ago
  > I know a couple of doctors that work in some city that they consider unworthy, and fly back to NYC for the weekend. These sorts of anecdotes don't really mean anything to me. If you don't like small towns to the point that you're going to fly to NYC every weekend, then yes, it would all seem a bit pointless working in one. > I make 6-figures in a small city doing IT. It is absolutely possible. I never said it wasn't possible, but it isn't even remotely normal, unless you have a different idea of small city than I do. Let me give you an example: for a bit my dad did IT for a local school system (elementary + high school) and made a little under $40k. And he wasn't underpaid for that job in the area. The "top" IT guys with bigger clients would pull about $60k, which was considered a very good salary for the area (and indeed it was, when a nice house could be had for not more than double that).
  - Spooky23 13y ago
    I live in a city of 100k people, metro area of 300k. So it's small, but not the wilderness either. End of the day, you need to specialize in an area that valuable to the organizations in the area. You may need to travel. Small-scale IT is become alot more automated and service-based, so jack of all trades roles are really competitive. So you may not be making $150k, but you're also insulated from the boom/bust cycle that permeates places like Silicon Valley, SFO, and to a lesser extent NYC. It all depends on what is important to you...

PixelPusher 14y ago

First, an office less world is a dream right now. If you plan to be hyper-competitive, there's no substitution to 'water-cooler' talk. Technology is nowhere near being able to reproduce that. Second, why would they put the picture of a communist leader who used to shoot defectors and kill artists? Why is he any sort of hero?

mr337 14y ago
I couldn't agree more about the pic of Che.
doorhammer 14y ago
I don't know that it's a really great idea to throw Che's image into a page related to your product, just because of how polarizing a figure he is, but I'm pretty sure it's only there as a casual reference to "the revolution isn't dead, by any means," and doesn't really have anything to do with glorifying Che or otherwise calling him a "hero." I could think of far more deplorable historical figures someone could stick a picture up of other than Che. While I don't necessarily agree with his ideals, I can respect certain aspects of his persona and drive.
scarmig 14y ago
As far as Che goes: At this point, the Che portrait is sort of the reverse story of the swastika. The swastika started out as a symbol of something good and got turned into a symbol of something monstrous; Che started out as something monstrous and got turned into a symbol of something good. That good being, I suppose, a consumerist, photogenic representation of rejecting consumerism.
RyJones 14y ago
The Che picture ended any interest I had.
hcarvalhoalves 14y ago
> Second, why would they put the picture of a communist leader who used to shoot defectors and kill artists? Why is he any sort of hero? It's a play with the word "revolution".

imissmyjuno 14y ago

UI nag: the fixed header is not functional (how often do people search a blog)?

polemic 14y ago

Beardy: "$8/month billed annually"

lebek 14y ago

As an exchange student that doesn't want to go home for his final year, remote degree would be nice too. Mobile work is a relatively trivial problem compared to a long-distance relationship.

cgh 14y ago

I've been working remotely (1500 km from the office) as a programmer since Sept. 2006. I believe there is huge potential for innovation here and that current collaboration tools are pretty primitive, although I have to say, Webex is a lifesaver. This Screenhero application looks like a great complement. Companies can gain a lot by allowing people to work remotely - they vastly increase the talent pool and they save money by not having to supply office space. But like the article said, there's a cultural issue here. The whole thing reminds me of online dating ten years ago, when the perception was that it's for losers. Now seemingly everyone does it. What's needed is basically validation for this lifestyle. Once that happens, the awesome tools will follow. Screenhero seems like a great first step for sure.

pm 14y ago
Have you seen the people are online dating these days? I don't think much has changed.
- potatolicious 14y ago
  As someone who works in online dating, it has absolutely changed. Online dating is more or less accepted in all major urban centers of the country, in fact becoming a core part of how people date in some (larger) cities like NYC, SF, and DC. The attitudes re: online dating a few years ago vs. now are like night and day.
Wump 14y ago
On the topic of online dating :) http://blog.screenhero.com/post/45779204029/share-a-little-love http://blog.screenhero.com/post/45779204029/share-a-little-l...

tadfisher 14y ago

I can't help but think of the environmental repercussions of this, should it come to pass. I can imagine that the cost of heating millions of houses and apartments during the day far exceeds the cost of heating a lesser number of shared office buildings and other collective spaces. An alternative would be if those millions of information workers worked out of coffee shops and the like during the day, but at that point, what is the benefit over working in an office?

rayiner 14y ago
Also: people go to work to get away from their houses. This sounds like the pipe dream of some antisocial introverts.
justinsteele 14y ago
Why not have communal workspaces in your neighborhood? Have friends over to work at your home, or vice versa? I'm an extrovert working from home, and occasionally struggling with it, but I can see where it would work beautifully.

flyinglizard 14y ago

This is the inevitable future, but something else - and related - I've been thinking about is the rise of the freelance. These two processes go hand in hand on the path to a more efficient yet flexible employment.

potatolicious 14y ago
Flexible sure, but not efficient. There's no way freelancing is overall a more efficient allocation of labor than employment. The problem is that in freelance you're getting a bunch of specialized labor to spend a considerable portion of their time performing a non-productive task: i.e., sales. This is suboptimal use of time for the worker, since those hours aren't billable. This is suboptimal use of time for the employer, since evaluating bids and candidates isn't free either. In cases where the employer does not have enough work to justify a full-time hire, this is an acceptable cost of doing business in order for the work to be done. It doesn't scale beyond this group though. Having a bunch of engineers spend a significant portion of their time performing salesmanship rather than engineering is very inefficient, though it may achieve locally optimal results for the individual if you account for flexibility.

aantix 14y ago

Meh, screen sharing is only part of the solution. I want to see who is available, who they've been chatting with, and I want to instantly share screens when I want. The only tool on the market that does this is Sococo; I don't understand why it never gets mentioned in these conversations.. https://www.sococo.com/home#screens-carousel https://www.sococo.com/home#screens-carousel

reustle 14y ago
I would never want to work for you.
- aantix 14y ago
  Why is that?