Good summary of why and how to do remote working in a pre-COVID-19 world. Would love to see an updated edition.
Motivation book, but not very helpful on the field.
Motivation book, but not very helpful on the field.
My first time going remote full-time was when I was 25 and fresh in a new city (NYC). I found it socially hard, un-motivating, distracting and the tools weren't quite perfect to feel as close to my fellow remote coworkers. Now, at 37, I'm giving it another go, and finding it much easier this time (after a year of giving it a shot remote part-time).
The lessons in this book mirror many of my own learnings: keep different home vs work computers, dedicate a room as your office if possible, the false myths of office collaboration, the not-actually-that-annoying realities of remote work, how to deal with the social distance, breaking up the day, etc.
Kudos to 37s for being cheerleaders for remote work! It has a learning curve -- easing into it may be the best advice -- but there are real benefits.
This book was a little disappointing, not because it's bad but because it wasn't quite what I was looking for. The book advertises itself as a collection of solutions to problems people encounter when embracing remote work, but more than anything else the problem it solves is "how do I convince management to embrace remote work?"
Most of the book is structured as a work of persuasion, something that's intended to convince people to go remote. A lot of it seems geared toward executives and managers, or giving lower-level employees ammunition and counterarguments for common objections. That's all well and good, but as someone who is already on-board with remote work and pretty experienced doing it for over 5 years, I don't personally need any convincing - I need help.
Going remote poses unique challenges and difficulties, and I thought the book might help give me some practical solutions to …
This book was a little disappointing, not because it's bad but because it wasn't quite what I was looking for. The book advertises itself as a collection of solutions to problems people encounter when embracing remote work, but more than anything else the problem it solves is "how do I convince management to embrace remote work?"
Most of the book is structured as a work of persuasion, something that's intended to convince people to go remote. A lot of it seems geared toward executives and managers, or giving lower-level employees ammunition and counterarguments for common objections. That's all well and good, but as someone who is already on-board with remote work and pretty experienced doing it for over 5 years, I don't personally need any convincing - I need help.
Going remote poses unique challenges and difficulties, and I thought the book might help give me some practical solutions to issues I've had with remote work as someone who prefers it and wants to be more successful with it. There's a little of that in the book, but it's mostly meant to persuade. I decided to read the book because I'm joining a new team that is fully distributed and having some struggles, and I was hoping this book would help me help them - but that's not really what's in here.
That said, since reading the book by total coincidence I've found myself involved in multiple conversations with people skeptical of remote work, and I used multiple arguments and examples I got directly from the book during the section of the book I felt like I wasn't getting much from, so maybe it's better than I give it credit for.
If someone is on the fence about remote work, this book is great. If you want to go remote and you need help convincing your team, your manager, or your company executives, this book is great. If everyone is already on board with remote work and needs practical solutions to issues that arise, the book is... fine? I guess? It's mostly fine.
Its an opinion book. Don't think of it as a well research/coherent framework for remote working and you will like it.
This is a really well-written book, and by that I mean loose language, non-pushy sell and reason. It's thinking loosely outside the box, in an intellectual way, putting facts behind words and personal experience as well. This is a real boon to workers and managers alike, who work using the internet.
