😷 Working Remote: Coronavirus Special

iteration

Welcome to Iteration, a weekly podcast about programming, development, and design.

• John: Hi I'm John a software engineer at a tech start up — Joined by JP
• JP: I'm JP, I'm a software engineer at a tech start up

Today we're going to be talking about something that's frequently discussed on the Twitters-phere:

Remote work.

Take me through your day

(day in the life of a remote developer)

• Get dressed
• Take a lunch

What are some of the challenges you've faced?

• John: schedule work just becomes intertwined with life. Dedicated meeting days or blocks make life so much better. Having some kind of boundaries.
• John: communications making sure to have a place for “chatter” and an “updates” cadence.

Some tips?

Get dressed every morning

Have a dedicated space or device

Get good at notification settings and use them

• Slack Status vs "Snooze" — For the hour

Office Hours / Schedule

Over communicate in passive channels

Video / Audio Setup

• Good Audio is most important
• Invest in lighting before a camera.
• A bad camera with good lighting is better than good camera with bad lighting.

Change your scenery

Work from energy not time.

Reduce distractions. Really don’t work with Netflix on in the background.

What are some of the pros / cons of working remote?

• John: Pros: random bunch dates with the wife. We brunch hard.
• John: Flexibility to travel and work. (Trip to Nashville this weekend) .
• John: Lunch break bike rides and dip in the ocean.
• John: Changing scenery, will regularly work from a park on a mountain top or pretentious coffee shops

What are your favorite tools?

• Standing Desk
• Loom
• Slack
• Miranda time zones app

Audio / Video Setup

• Headphones with Good Audio #1 priority, #2 is noise canceling (if you need it)
• Blue Yeti Mic
• A bad camera with good lighting is better than a good camera with bad lighting.
• Elgato Key Light
• Logitech Brio Webcam

https://github.com/KyleAMathews/typefaces

Photos of our home office Desk Setups

Resources

• Book: Remote
• Book: Ultimate Guide to remote work

Picks

• Trailer Github App
• Typefaces — Self host google fonts
• Supermarket — Just a fun book