[smitjel]

The author isn't factoring in HOW the company writes software...it's not just about what language a company uses. That's a small piece of the puzzle.

What if the company uses an agile approach to development? Maybe they pair program. That would be a little tough for someone to participate in while telecommuting...sure, technically it can be accomplished but that's not really how pair programming is done.

But this broad brush used to paint companies that simply say they don't telecommute as "not getting it" is a little lame.

[jtheory]

Pair programming is worth discussing.

I've tried pair programming in person, and it's almost impossible for me. I have vision problems, and I just really need my own monitor, configured how I want it, with me sitting squarely in front of it. But even beyond that issue, I'm enough of an introvert that I have a whole set up thoughts running through my head when I'm in a social situation, monitoring myself for the image I'm presenting, and the other person for how they're reacting. I can still work, but it definitely takes up some bandwidth, kind of like if I'm working while speaking a foreign language.

But the experience of remote paired work has been surprisingly good, for more than just the vision reason. I'm started recently on a completely-remote development job, with the team spread across multiple continents. No pair programming yet, but I just got off a call a few hours ago where I worked with another developer for more than an hour, troubleshooting build issues.

- Whoever is driving shares their screen, but we both still have access to our own computers, so there's no "hang on, lemme run back to my PC to double-check my notes there...".

- You're never forced to code with someone else's computer/keyboard/monitor/mouse/system setup/chair/etc.

- No awkwardly bumping knees or elbows, no worries about the other programmer having overpowering coffee breath or odd physical tics, being distractingly unattractive or attractive, etc..

So YMMV, but personally I'd rather do pair programming this way even if I was at the office.

Side note: I am simply unavailable for jobs that don't allow telecommuting; that's been the case for years now.

[technomancy]

> So YMMV, but personally I'd rather do pair programming this way even if I was at the office.

After a year or so of remote pairing I strongly agree. Among other things, no more dvorak/qwerty conflict is great.

[tswicegood]

I disagree here (obviously). Hiding behind agile (in any flavor) as a reason to not allow telecommuting is just that, hiding. I've known plenty of teams who have successfully pair programmed trans-continent.

It can be done. Maybe it is more challenging, but I don't think "agile" automatically rules it out.

[technomancy]

> It can be done. Maybe it is more challenging [...]

The only thing that's challenging about it is that you have to take some time to meet in person so people get a feeling for each others sense of humor, etc. We do this 3-4 times a year--rent a vacation home for a week and work in person for a while just to gel the team. Once you have a team that knows each other it works great.

[tswicegood]

Completely agree. A lot of MBA types (sorry for the overly broad generalization here) seem to have gotten the idea that every day should be a team building exercise and you can obviously only do those on site where you can take foam bats to each other and have the best ideas rise to the top.

Seriously though, that's what a lot of these arguments sound like to me.

[brown9-2]

The author isn't factoring in HOW the company writes software...it's not just about what language a company uses. That's a small piece of the puzzle.

Did we read different articles? Because I didn't see any arguments based on what language a company uses having anything to do with the ability to telecommute.

[tswicegood]

I made an aside to Django vs Drupal and a few people have seized on it. My bad, I took a cheap shot that detracted from the overall point. :-/

[taylorlb]

I'd be interested to hear more about this though.

[technomancy]

> What if the company uses an agile approach to development? Maybe they pair program.

I pair program every day over voip and tmux. It works great; there's absolutely nothing about being remote that precludes pairing as long as you have a stable 'net connection.