I've been working remote for 7 years. Mostly in small towns in Texas, but a couple in a big city. It was fun and good for awhile. It got lonely and hard after year 5. I didn't do a good job of getting enough rest and time away from work, and got burned out. It took 3 months of part time to get back to normal.
Your team has a big impact on your well-being. If they encourage healthy work/life balance and you have a healthy routine, you'll be better off than if they encourage longer hours and more, more, more.
Very thankful with where I am now, though. I've spent this afternoon working on a patio at a little cafe in the downtown area of a small town. That's pretty amazing.
> I've spent this afternoon working on a patio at a little cafe in the downtown area of a small town
This sounds like hell to me. My joy is being on a small team in a room with 6-10 other people where we collaborate with each other, calling out, asking for advice on solutions, designing together, getting lunch together, and being in each other presence.
Sitting an a cafe staring at a screen and ignoring all the strangers around me sounds like a dystopia from being around friends and working together.
I've worked from cafes for 3 of the last 4 years (because the last year was covid so no cafes). It's better than being isolated at home but it was 10% of what I get from being physically with teammates.
If you enjoy the solitude good for you.
For me the difference between remote work and office work is like the difference between a real social meetup and a zoom meetup. The zoom meetup doesn't come close the real thing. Similarly, remote working doesn't compare to working physically together. All the things missing from the zoom meetup vs the a physical meetup are also missing from remote work.
I do miss working with people. I took a job in LA in February 2020 because I wanted to work in an office with a team. That office shut down the week I got there. I moved back to Texas 3 months later. Now I work for a company mostly based in NYC. Hoping to get to visit soon. But. Covid.
> being on a small team in a room with 6-10 other people
That sounds like hell to me. I prefer a quiet office where I can concentrate without constantly being interrupted. So it clearly depends on your personality whether it works for you or not.
I enjoyed the hell out of both videos and will be watching them again because there was so much to unpack there. I didn't send an email because it's intimidating to email someone who has affected my life in so many ways, but I will take this opportunity to thank you for your work and for sharing your ideas in these videos.
I was in a very similar situation. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life when I was 18, was angry about a relationship that ended (I had no skills for dealing with it at the time), so I got into drinking and drugs and made a lot of bad choices (which eventually landed me 10 years of probation).
I ended up working a string of minimum wage jobs before finally finding a factory job that was hard, but paid a little more ($13/hour). Since I really wanted to be a professional drummer and tour with a band, I figured that I needed to learn a skill that I could do on the road. I decided to start studying web development and graphic design. I worked a bunch of overtime, bought a used macbook, and started spending all my nights and weekends studying (I have a friend who calls this the Overlap Technique; google it). After a couple years, I had learned enough to get an (unpaid) internship at a small web design agency. That eventually gave me the confidence to start taking on freelance clients when the opportunities came.
The hardest part was learning to like myself again. By the time I was 20, I was overweight at 260 pounds (I'm 5'll). I started making small changes to my diet (stopped drinking soda, started eating healthier foods), and I started walking, exercising, riding my bike around town, etc. I lost 80 pounds over the course of three years, and I felt and looked really good.
I was also fortunate enough to find a group of cognitive therapists who were really smart and really kind who helped me understand the thought patterns that were making me fuck up my own life.
I had two major breakthroughs; the first was after taking shrooms (not a recommendation, mind you) I realized that I could make my life be whatever I wanted it to be. I had control over my decisions, and they would shape my life.
The second was that I had to stop giving a fuck about what the people who didn't know me had to say about the poor choices I made in the past. I understand why I made those shitty choices, and I won't be making them again. If someone wants to be a dick or refuse to work with me because of a bad choice I made in the past, they aren't someone I want in my life anyways.
I turn 30 in two months. I have a solid source of income from multiple clients who I have good relationships with (they've never asked for a background check), a nice girlfriend, and plenty of friends who know about my past and still respect me for the person I am today. They can't even comprehend the level of shithead I was back then because today I am nothing but kind, respectful, encouraging and helpful to everyone I meet.
I'm lucky to be the editor of both the Shoptalk Show and the Changelog. Great shows with good people. I'd recommend checking out the seanwes podcast (life changing), Developing Perspective, CodePen Radio, Core Intuition, Let's Make Mistakes, Mac Power Users, Systematic, and the Accidental Tech Podcast.
(I use 99% isopropyl alcohol to clean my computer, screen and all. It's notably absent from Apple's list of forbidden chemicals, but I'm not sure that it's safe so I won't recommend it.)
