Do any software development people here work from really remote locations?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2231978

by irishmanirl • 15 years ago

4 4 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I was just reading about of the most remote spots on the planet that is inhabited, Pitcairn island in the south pacific, only has 50 people living on the whole island.

Personally I have always envisioned living somewhere remote, like this, on a small island, up the mountains or in a lighthouse - well away from other people, ideally somewhere with a moat & drawbridge.....well maybe the drawbridge is a bit far...but I want the moat! :-)

I'm a software engineer (Ruby) so in theory at least as long as I have a reliable internet connection I should be able to work from almost anywhere.

Just wondering if there is anyone here who lives / works from such a remote location & what their experience has been like?

nudge• 15 years ago

I don't know about isolated spots, but there are at least a few people on hn who travel the world while running their startups. Lionhearted (www.sebastianmarshall.com) is one.

sagacity• 15 years ago

>Personally I have always envisioned living somewhere remote, like this, on a small island, up the mountains or in a lighthouse -

(Even at the risk of sounding childish, I say) Me too!!

And you know what? At 48, I think that day is fast approaching for me. :-)

In the past decade or so, I've pulled a few (short, days/weeks) stints at it and just loved it. Some of the remote locations from where I've conducted various business activities online:

* Various Himalayan retreats (in India and Nepal)

* Cruise ship sailing between Singapore and Malaysia

* A port town of Nigeria

* Beach resorts in Goa and Mauritius

* Cruise ship on Nile (Egypt)

Although I enjoyed working from all of those places thoroughly, my personal destination of choice is the Himalayas; waiting for the day.

randombit• 15 years ago

I'm not quite on Pitcairn Island, but I live and work in rural Vermont, and by far the biggest problem with it is precisely the lack of a reliable internet connection. Right now for me, the only viable option is satellite, which is horrible (225 MiB/day download cap, 800 ms ping times). I'm currently investigating a T1 line, which will be expensive, but (slightly) cheaper than renting an office in an area with DSL access. (Moral of the story here is clearly to not fall in love with a girl who owns a house on the end of a dirt road...) I'm sure many (though certainly not all) other remote locations are as bad; so don't make assumptions on that before you pull the trigger on a specific area.

Another factor of living in the middle of nowhere, especially after living in DC and NYC, is the technical/social isolation is pretty intense. I'm about 10 miles from Dartmouth, and there is small tech culture there, but it's not like there are monthly Lisp or Scala or security meetups. Or even a student ACM chapter, for that matter. No matter how you slice it, it's hard to replace quality in-person interactions with online. IRC and mailing lists are great and useful things, but being able to hang out drinking coffee with someone while you sketch out ideas in a notebook is pretty damn important too. (There are plenty of interesting people out here, but most programmers, especially the good ones, will of course gravitate to urban areas, so the population of tech people out here is near zero).

eengstrom• 15 years ago

Meaning remote enough to have at least two methods of connectivity? Yes. Constantly. Even used my early windows smart phone to run performance tests through HP's performance center while on vacation in Paris (no ide, only web controls).

Being remote can be very hard for most people. It took about a year before I was able to handle discrete paid work and personal life. As a self-employed consultant, I learned some very valuable tricks and techniques for being highly productive.

Test yourself for a at least half a year if you can before deciding on something like this. As mentioned, stepping out of your normal social life in addition to changing work (where many of us socialize) is a really hard adjustment to make.

Without changing work habits, preventing procrastination and finding a sense of accomplishment without physical direction and feedback most people will fail miserably.

For remote and travel related work:

1. Always have a spare power supply and uninterrupted source 2. Always have at least TWO methods of connection, even if 1 is dial-up, test it frequently - know where your nearest source of reliable internectivity is and how long you need to get there 3. Your customer and employer will only accept internectivity issue problems as an excuse once - after that they won't trust you, which will limit your options and may end your remote work, making it worse for everyone else 4. Create office hours and keep them, regardless of time zone, at first try and match your co-workers when possible - for the first 3 to 6 months, treat your personal life the same as you would in an office - don't stop work to do laundry or go shopping "just because you're home" - especially if partnered with someone who "has a real job"...

When I got started I found it most useful to spring out of bed, start-up the computers, feed the cats, make coffee, get into sweats and get to work. I stopped for a shower and lunch and shifted gears. Over time my day ended up being over by 2PM wherever I was, getting more work done than I ever had in an office, being more creative and still have time in my day to solve problems, question the universe, garden, learn cooking and French... and excel in life.

Do any software development people here work from really remote locations?

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