Remote
Photo of david

david &
Remote by David Heinemeier Hansson

Read date
Not setJan 1st 2022
Edition
ISBN 9780804137508

Reviews

Photo of Lovro Oreskovic
Lovro Oreskovic@lovro
5 stars
Apr 7, 2024

It is a good introduction to remote work, but it reads more like a article than a book. And I think it works better as a thing to give to your manager to read if you are trying to get him to start remote work. But none the less, a good introduction.

Photo of Bohdan
Bohdan@stefaniuk
4 stars
Apr 4, 2024

Позволяет посмотреть на свою работу с другой стороны, со стороны удаленки. Рассказывает как организовать работу, как донести идеи удаленной работы до руководства.

Photo of Rafael Matsumoto
Rafael Matsumoto@rafaelmatsumoto
4 stars
Feb 25, 2024

In another great book, David and Jason were able to prove that, with the help of modern technology, an office building is just a luxury for many businesses. They also provided some tips that can help you enhance the experience of working remotely.

Photo of Mark Gibaud
Mark Gibaud@markgibaud
3 stars
May 30, 2023

A good quick read, but not as much insight to remote-working as I would've liked, and too much anecdote/opinion and not enough research cited. Full review: http://markgibaud.com/2013/12/05/book...

Photo of Jimmy Cerone
Jimmy Cerone@jrcii
4 stars
Feb 4, 2023

A good book with some solid insights into remote work, but nothing groundbreaking (at least now that remote work is normal).

Photo of Alex Ker
Alex Ker@alexker
3 stars
Dec 19, 2022

Some insights, but more a persuasive collection of short essays for remote work. Sparse and hand-wavy instructions on how to make remote management effective.

Photo of Sanat Gersappa
Sanat Gersappa@sanatgersappa
4 stars
Aug 13, 2022

Mostly agree. Nicely written.

Photo of Tomita Militaru
Tomita Militaru@tomitzel
3 stars
Mar 28, 2022

Boring book, reiterates 2-3 ideas over & over again. The graphics kinda save the book.

Photo of Lincy
Lincy@lincy
4 stars
Feb 16, 2022

3.5-4

Photo of Nikolay Bachiyski
Nikolay Bachiyski@nb
4 stars
Nov 19, 2021

Thin, short-paragraphed, biased, opinionated, beautifully written and illustrated remote work manifesto and a sales pitch. Every copyrighter should be jealous. “Remote” shares the advantages and the problems of the advertisement as a literary form. If you don't have much experience with remote working or you let your mind wander for a bit, the book is extremely convincing. DHH/Fried know how to write well. If you look deeper, you may notice that they offer faux acknowledgements for all the drawbacks and unsuitability of remote working. All problems seem to have very easy solutions in the book. In practice, it's a lot more complicated. The book is great remote work sales tool, just don't forget to think of all angles if you need to put it into practice. The 37signals’ experience is not all there is.

Photo of Hooman Askari
Hooman Askari@hoomanaskari
3 stars
Nov 18, 2021

Not very relevant anymore. It was an important book at some point though.

Photo of Lance Willett
Lance Willett@lancewillett
4 stars
Oct 11, 2021

A quick and insightful read into how 37Signals (now Basecamp) works remotely. Not much new for me, as I've been remote since 2005 and my employer — Automattic — does this with 5x more people than Basecamp. If you're new to remote working, I'd recommend it highly.

Photo of Kevin S Perrine
Kevin S Perrine@kevinsperrine
3 stars
Sep 22, 2021

Love remote work, and this book has some great insights, but comes off as a little too self-congratulatory. It could have been condensed quite a bit.

Photo of Luca Conti
Luca Conti@lucaconti
4 stars
Sep 10, 2021

Good enough

Photo of Aurooba Ahmed
Aurooba Ahmed@aurooba
5 stars
Aug 18, 2021

Loved it.

Photo of Jeff Sexton
Jeff Sexton@bookanonjeff
5 stars
Jan 2, 2024
Photo of Anton Sten
Anton Sten@antonsten
4 stars
Apr 3, 2022
Photo of John Ireland
John Ireland@john_i
3 stars
Feb 10, 2022
+5
Photo of Richard Saunders
Richard Saunders@rdsaunders
5 stars
Apr 17, 2024
Photo of Leo Vogel
Leo Vogel@leovogel
4 stars
Feb 25, 2024
Photo of David Furnes
David Furnes@dfurnes
4 stars
Jan 25, 2024
Photo of Aaron Chiandet
Aaron Chiandet@achiandet
4 stars
Jan 11, 2024
Photo of Mt Tetzel
Mt Tetzel@mrzool
3 stars
Jan 2, 2024
Photo of Sanket Pathak
Sanket Pathak@sanketpath
3 stars
Jan 2, 2024

Highlights

Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

As detailed by Alfie Kohn in his wonderful book Punished by Rewards (...). Trying to conjure motivation by means of rewards or threats is terribly ineffective. In fact, it's downright counterproductive. Rather, the only reliable way to muster motivation is by encouraging people to work on the stuff they like and care about, with people they like and care about. There are no shortcuts.

Page 215

Staying motivated

Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

Take your laptop and head to the nearest coffee shop with WiFi. There you'll get to work alone with no interruption from coworkers, but still enjoy the buzzing white noise of the crowd. It sounds counterintuitive, but the presence of other people, even if you don't know them, can fool your mind into thinking that being productive is the only proper thing to do. Who really wants to be the slacker siting in a coffee shop during working hours, watching silly cats on Reddit or playing a video game?

Page 212

Working alone in a crowd

Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

Jason usually spends the mornings at home, then heads into the office around 11. That doesn't mean he starts work at 11. He starts around 7:30 or 8am. But he uses the morning to catch up on things that require zero office distractions, and then heads into the office for more collaborative work (...)

Page 207

Morning remote, afternoon local

Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

Another hack is to divide the day into chunks like Catch-up, Collaboration, and Serious Work. Some people prefer to use the mornings to catch up on email, industry news, and other low-intensity tasks, and then put their game face on for tearing through the tough stuff after lunch.

Page 207

Building a routine

Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

One of our employees, Noah, likes to demarcate using his slippers: he has both a work set and a home set! Not everyone uses such props or even requires the mental separation they're meant to cre- ate, but if youre having trouble getting into work mode in the morning, try putting on some pants.

Page 204

Building a routine

Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

make face-to-face harder and less frequent and you'll see the value of these interactions go up, not down.

Page 200
Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

However, when (...) meetings occur all the time, they begin to lose their value. Whereas before they'd been the perfect opportunity for a high-value exchange of information, they start to become routine, tired, played out, and, ultimately, an enormous waste of time. Questions that could have been answered in a few minutes via email or the phone turn into forty-five minute in-person conversations. Once in a while these gabfests are fine, but when they become the norm (...) you've got a problem.

Page 199
Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

In the same way that you don't want a gang of slackers, you also don't want a band of supermen. The best workers over the long term are people who put in sustainable hours. Not too much, not too little-just right. Forty nours a week on average usually does the trick.

Page 197
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

Most companies start out by (...) everyone is only granted access to information and applications on a need-to-know basis. That's completely unnecessary. Unless you work in the military, (...) – keeping these access barriers in place is just making it difficult for everyone to get their work done.

Page 193
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

Further, formal annual reviews are usually too big-picture to pick up on the small things. Formal reviews cover such things as long-range goals, salary adjustments, possible promotions, etc. But the real dangers are the small things – the concerns that creep up between annual check-ins.

Page 190
Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

We call these regular check-ins "one-on-ones," (...) The key is to make them casual and conversational. This is a "what's up, how are things?" call more than a specific critique of a specific project or a response to a piece of work. These chats typically last twenty or thirty minutes, but it's good to keep an hour open-just in case. If the conversation is going well, you don't want to have to cut things short.

Page 189
Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

We call these regular check-ins "one-on-ones," (...) The key is to make them casual and conversational. This is a "what's up, how are things?" call more than a specific critique of a specific project or a response to a piece of work. These chats typically last twenty or thirty minutes, but it's good to keep an hour open-just in case. If the conversation is going well, you don't want to have to cut things short.

Page 189
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

As a company owner or manager, you need to create and maintain a level playing field – one on which those in and out of the offhce stand as equals. (...) People with the power to change things need to feel the same hurt as those who merely have to deal with it.

Page 186
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

Working remotely blows a big fat hole in that style of management. IfI cant see workers come in and leave their desks, how on earth can I make sure they're actually work- ing? Or so goes the naive thinking of a manager of chairs.

Page 176
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

Since we already know we like their skills (otherwise they wouldn't have gotten this far), the in-person mneeting is to determine if we like the "person."

Page 167
Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

The project depends on the job they're applying to. A designer might be tasked with redesigning one screen from our website or one of our products.

Page 164
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

is to hire the person to do a little work before we take the plunge and hire them to do a lot of work. Call it "pre-hiring." Pre-hiring takes the form of a one- or two- week mini-project. We usually pay around $1,500 for the mini-project. We never ask people to work for free. If we wouldn't do it for free, why would we ask someon else to do it?

Page 164
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

You should read, read, and read some more. Study how good writers make their case. Focus on clarity first, style second. Here are a few books to start with if you're serious about becoming a better writer:

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White

Revising Prose by Richard Lanham

Page 162
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

the first filter that really matters is the cover letter explaining exactly why there's a fit between applicant and company. There's simply no getting around it: in hiring for remote-working positions, managers should be ruthless in filtering out poor writers

Page 161
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

The old adage still applies: No assholes allowed. But for remote work, you need to extend it to no asshole-y behavior allowed, no drama allowed, no bad vibes vibes allowed.

Page 146
Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

When the bulk of your communication happens via email and the like, it doesn't take much for bad blood to develop unless everyone is making their best effort to the contrary. Small misunderstandings that could have been nipped in the bud with a wink of an eye or a certain tone of voice can quickly snowball into drama.

Page 144
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

If there aren't built-in reasons to move during your day, find excuses to move for example, instead of just ating lunch at voUur desk. walk to a café or sandwich shop.

Page 123
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Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

insurance company Aetna, which has nearly half its 35,000 U.S. employees working fron home. They discovered that the remote-working half tended to be heavier.

Page 123
Photo of Friedrich Schuler
Friedrich Schuler@friiedriich

How often can you say that a given meeting was worth it? Remember, there's no such thing as a one-hour meeting. If you're in a room with five people for an hour, it's a five-hour meeting.

Page 109