At my current work, I am the only programmer in an office of designers and sales. We (I) make CMS and other custom systems for clients. We really want to move to a generalized platform instead of one-off custom systems, but due to a number of issues, we can't.
One of those main issues is that there is no one like a programming buddy to "talk shop" with. I feel I am an OK coder, but everyone gets those times when they think "Should I implement this with A, or use B? Does this need to be extensible, and if so, to what degree?"
These are questions that usually cannot be answered by someone who is not deeply involved in the project, and someone who knows what the resource costs are for implementing features, as well as the cost for needing to implement those features down the line.
Agreed , having a buddy really helps get things in perspective. Moreover, I work in a startup where direction of things get changed really fast. Not sure having remote people in this type of scenario will work.
At my current work, I am the only programmer in an office of designers and sales. We (I) make CMS and other custom systems for clients. We really want to move to a generalized platform instead of one-off custom systems, but due to a number of issues, we can't.
One of those main issues is that there is no one like a programming buddy to "talk shop" with. I feel I am an OK coder, but everyone gets those times when they think "Should I implement this with A, or use B? Does this need to be extensible, and if so, to what degree?"
These are questions that usually cannot be answered by someone who is not deeply involved in the project, and someone who knows what the resource costs are for implementing features, as well as the cost for needing to implement those features down the line.