I am an alcoholic sober for 7 years. You know you have a problem and that really is great because then you can address it. If you need to talk to someone, find me on twitter @glanotte and we will find a way to get in touch.
If you don't want to talk, get to an AA meeting or if you don't think you can control yourself, check into rehab. Strike while you care about it, don't wait for yourself to start making excuses.
I have been working remotely for the last year after working in an office for ~14 years.
The largest potential issue that I have run into is is communication and how it is handled.
The most important thing I would ask would be how many of the people on the team you deal directly with are remote. That will give a pretty good gauge on what it will be like.
I would also ask why they chose to open up remote positions. Is it a last resort to get people hired or is it because they just care about the quality of the hires. You may or may not get an honest answer here, but I would ask it any way.
The other I would ask is what is the primary means of communication in the company. If they say "Campfire", "Flowdock" or something along those lines - ask how many rooms they have and how active they are. The key here is asynchronous communication, with remote positions come different schedules, removing the need for instantaneous response is nice.
Along those lines I would ask about hours that people work, are there core hours or is it 8-5 Pacific time, etc. If there is a rigid schedule, that is a bit of a red flag for me.
I would also ask how often the team gets together, this should be a priority and I think once a quarter minimum would be a good time frame.
You mentioned a devops role, so this might not be as big of a thing for you, but I like to see them using pull requests (or similar methodology) for feature merging. In my experience thus far, those have really helped keeping team members up to speed. That isn't a deal breaker, but a good thing if I see it.
A coworking space is an option but find what works best for you and try different options. I personally work best at coffee shops, but I split my time between coffee shops and home.
I would just add that you should be wary of burnout. For that I diligently log my time and try to manage my schedule. We have flexible hours which sounds nice but it is easy for me to work all the time. So, go to work (even if it is just a home-office) and then go home. I have a space at home that is exclusively for work. having those clean lines is what has kept me sane.
Personally I found it beneficial to have a "work computer", a "work phone", and keep things entirely separate from my home setup. That meant if I were working I'd use the dedicated hardware, and if not I would use my stuff.
There were certainly times when I worked overnight, but in general the idea was to pretend I was in an office, and only bootup the work-machine when I was actually in working hours.
I did deviate a few times, when the work broadband was down, but my personal one was up, but I kept that as minimal as I could.
"can't help feeling i'm building a dream for someone else."
Background - employed software developer for 15 years.
I really don't see a problem with building other people's dreams. In fact, I enjoy it and have been rewarded for it well over the last 15 years. I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from some amazing developers and to build some very cool products. At the moment, I don't have an entrepreneurial dream and I may never have one. I am content to make a living doing what I love to do - which is simply to write software.
I don't think the issue is risk aversion or not following your dream. I just think that different people have different dreams and desires. At the risk of sounding like a Disney firework show - follow your dream. If you have a dream of owning your own business, you can make a plan to do that. That might involve striking out on your own early or later in life. I think you just have to ask yourself what you want.
The zoomed out thing happened to me too... I was wondering if my resolution had changed, but I always have my resolution turned all the way up. Interesting effect.
I really couldn't disagree with this post any more. While I think he raises several points that are applicable to him, none apply to me.
I have also been a prime subscriber since 2005 and it has paid for itself many times over in shipping costs alone. I have had bunk beds, computers, televisions all shipped second day for free. Rarely have I had issues, I would continue to pay for the service even if it was twice what it is now.
And I do use the streaming service quite regularly. I have not had cable for quite some time so I use streaming services for close to 50% of my at home entertainment. Of that, I think the amazon library is one of the better available.
At any rate, I have been and will hopefully continue to be a happy prime subscriber for at least another year.
I agree that it probably isn't him, but the site is so ridiculously bad... it just might be.
It does make me sad, just because if he let his domain go, he probably isn't coming back. I did see that it had been parked as recently as a few weeks ago, so it probably did get swiped up.
I don't know his family, but with Jim as their relative, I would pray they are wise enough to ignore a troll. Jim was a wonderful man and this little person doesn't matter, neither do his opinions.
I would tend to agree with you, but paypal was emphatic that they _did not_ (emphasis theirs) release anything. There is a difference between not finding evidence and saying as such, "We could find no evidence that that one of our employees failed to follow correct and established procedures". If they had said that, I would be more inclined to let them go. I believe that they placed the burden of proof on themselves by coming out with such a firm statement.
In that case, I think it works for both parties. He ruled you out as a potential employer. The person who admires it would probably see the candidate as a good fit.
Exactly. If a prospective employer can't see the value of you taking a calculated risk and creatively applying your skills before you're hired, what makes you think they will afterward?
If you don't want to talk, get to an AA meeting or if you don't think you can control yourself, check into rehab. Strike while you care about it, don't wait for yourself to start making excuses.